Purposely hiding stuff from buyers

[protege]

In our case, the problems with our house are almost entirely because the owner two back from us decided to try to do his own home renovations, without going through all of the legal hoops.

I ran into some of that when I bought my place in 2006. Some of the problems were pretty obvious--the crumbling front steps, for example. Others, like some of the basement electrical outlets being wired backwards and the furnace having a cracked heat exchanger were a bit hidden. Had I not hired an independent inspector, it could have been very dangerous. Pardon my French, but carbon monoxide and electrical fires don't fuck around

The steps were crumbling, simply because the owner's son didn't do it right. He was a "contractor" and thought he could fix them. By my neighbor's accounts, he was drunk out of his mind 24/7, and poured the concrete in subzero weather. Result? While the outside looked OK, what was underneath...really wasn't. What was supposed to be solid concrete was powder! The cold had frozen the water. As if that wasn't enough, there were all sorts of odd rocks and old bricks thrown in to keep the cost down. After having a huge chunk fall out of the steps one afternoon...I tore them out with a pickaxe and sledgehammer. Hauled that shit away, and had them replaced last year. Expensive, but well worth it. The job is done right, and I shouldn't have to worry about it.

The electrical problems were a bit more serious. I could have easily been fried, had I attempted to plug a computer into one of the basement outlets. At least one was wired backwards, others weren't even grounded, and one more was actually grounded...to the metal 'raceway' it was set into Again, the home inspector saved my ass. Sure, I had to hire an electrician, and have him replace (I opted to upgrade things to 3-prong plugs everywhere) the sockets, but again, money well spent.

As for the furnace, if that hadn't been inspected, the carbon monoxide issues would have killed me. A cracked heat exchanger would have filled the entire house with undetected fumes, slowly killing me. Getting that taken care of involved replacing the entire furnace...cost of which was picked up by the seller.

When I bought my place, there was no law about getting a home inspector. At the time, it wasn't required. No regulations then either--any idiot with a pickup truck and some tools could claim to be a "home inspector." Even now, with regulations, there are still some dodgy ones about. Best thing in that case, is to use Angie's List, or get a recommendation from someone you trust. In my case, it was my realtor who put me in touch with someone. Normally, you have to be careful in such situations. But, I'd known my realtor for 30 years--he and his late wife (she died in '98 from cancer) owned the salon in the neighborhood.

[Andara Bledin]

Thankfully, the electrical is one thing that the former owner didn't cheap out on.

Everything else is half-assed (there's seven layers of roofing material - the eaves are sagging under the weight), except for the electricity and the heating unit. Apparently, while they didn't care if the house fell apart around them, they weren't about to let it burn down.

Either way, nothing will ever rival the story from another forum where the homeowner came home one day to find heating oil flooding their basement and their driveway got declared a toxic waste site because the former owner left a half-full oil tank buried in the yard and then lied about it's removal.

^-.-^

[protege]

A half-full tank? Holy crap! I sure hope the buyer went after the seller for that. I'd have taken the bastard to court for the costs of removal and clean up.

[Andara Bledin]

The saga of the buried oil tank.
More idiocy in that same home.
And if that wasn't enough, here's some sewer nightmares from that same house.

And, for further home-buying nightmares, you can read about another Arsian's flood insurance saga.

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

That oil tank reminds me of something similar that happened to Dad. It didn't make a mess, but it sure was a scare.

I wasn't there, and so the details are fuzzy... but he discovered a definitely-NOT-empty gas tank (as in natural gas or propane) buried at his old office. And he discovered it by knocking the barely-buried vent or fill or whatever it was off with a scraper blade, causing it to empty itself right at him sitting there on the old tractor. Fortunately, there was no spark. (I don't know what he was trying to do; probably divert water from running into the basement, since that was a chronic problem in that house.)

[Aethian]

I know this is mostly about physical problems with the homes but I've got a doozy right now.

Delivering to myself no less...a notice from the county that my landlord hasn't paid property taxes since 2010. My place, that I signed a lease to own on, is due for tax sale on March 1st. Guess whose landlord is out of state until March 4th? I've called who I can and it looks like unless I can find the money and out bid outside people I WILL be loosing my home. And the money like new locks, a new basement door, fixing the doors to the shed, all the new shelving I just put up, the full tank of heating oil...

[HYHYBT]

Aethian: ouch! Not that it matters at this point, but why would they deliver that to you? (And how can anybody be out of contact with their mail for over a month?)

[Aethian]

Aethian: ouch! Not that it matters at this point, but why would they deliver that to you?

Because they have to let all parties for the property know before its posted in the paper. The letter came addressed to the occupant. It was basically my heads up.

(And how can anybody be out of contact with their mail for over a month?)

I see it all the time. Hell i know several that only pick up their mail once every two weeks and thats because its payday. Usually it's better for small business owners to do a premium forward so that they get all their mail once a week at whatever place they go to. But I have a feeling that he knows that I would verbally rip him to shreds if I could get a hold of him right now.

[Shadowen]

(And how can anybody be out of contact with their mail for over a month?)

*raises hand*

The post office for me is literally across the street in my small community. Its hours of operation are 9am to 3:30pm, monday to friday. With the doors to the boxes being locked at 6pm. Each time I've tried the doors on the weekends, they have been locked.

I work monday to friday, 9 to 5:30 (tho I often don't get out until 5:45 at the earliest), my commute is 25 minutes each way in good weather and no stupid drivers. Considering I am on the road during the evening rush hour and the college kids speeding, I don't get home till 6:30pm most nights. It is very common for me to go weeks, if not months at a time, being unable to get to the post office in time to get my mail.

I could use some of my time off (30 min to an hour) to check my mail weekly, but with how short staffed (less then a skeleton crew now) we are at work right now, that time difference means the difference between getting a hello when I get to work, and having a very large server case thrown at my head as I walk in the door.*

Fortunately, anything official is automatically sent to my parents, in the same town, even tho they have a bad habit of opening my mail. Any parcels, when possible, I have sent to work.


Speed limit on my commute is 90km/h, I'll often be going a bit faster then that when I can (+5km/h), and get passed like I am standing still, with the kids crossing a double yellow centre line, on a curve, with oncoming traffic.



*yes, I am exaggerating, but not by much. Business owner has checked out of the business and it takes at least four months to convince him that yes, we need X number of bodies to function. The lot of us are just biding our times until we find something better and flee the ship.*

[HYHYBT]

Wow. Our post office *never* locks the public side of the building. They have a mall-style gate that goes around the store area and a big metal door that pulls down over where the cashiers sit, but anyone can get to the PO boxes, drop slots, scale (though I don't think it works anymore) and various cards like for temporarily stopping delivery any time of day or night. (They used to also have a stamp vending machine that took anything up to $20 bills and gave change in dollar coins, but it was not just removed, but actually *walled over* a few years ago.)

[Aethian]

Wow. Our post office *never* locks the public side of the building. They have a mall-style gate that goes around the store area and a big metal door that pulls down over where the cashiers sit, but anyone can get to the PO boxes, drop slots, scale (though I don't think it works anymore) and various cards like for temporarily stopping delivery any time of day or night. (They used to also have a stamp vending machine that took anything up to $20 bills and gave change in dollar coins, but it was not just removed, but actually *walled over* a few years ago.)

Different setups of what was needed at the time the po went into operation. Unfortunately the higher ups don't listen when we tell them that something is wrong cause...the computer says its fine.