Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My wife an I are all pretty much set (mortgage commitment letter in hand) to go into closing next week for a house that we found in Bay Ridge Brooklyn.
I have a few important questions that are still bugging us:
1) Termites - we had a licensed professional come and look at the residence (a fully dettached house). He did not find any evidence of termites but we were told that our neighbors house DOES HAVE them and they are actively treating the situation. He checked as hard as he could, but said that "due to limited" access in many places in the house & basement, he cannot say for certain that nothing is going on our side. He did find a few DEAD carpenter ants in shared garage of the next-door neighbor. Off the record he told my wife that the likelyhood is that we probably have them too...but again, no proof at all.
What else can we do to be more at peace that we are clean of termites? The house has NO cracks anywhere in the original bricks and has been found to be in excellent condition by the GENERAL inspector. The only problems found were a few rusty pipes that need replacing and a LEAD pipe, which we will remove as a matter of safey.
Also, if you have a great termite inspector to recommend for Bay Ridge Brooklyn as a second opinion, I am all ears!
2) Electrical. About 4 years ago, the current owner did a UPGRADE / UPDATE of the first floor by installing some new recessed lights, oak wooden floor, new Siant/Fin steam heaters, changed the boiler, etc.... He of course also updated BREAKER box for electricity. He now has two x 100 amps for a total of 200 amps. Some of the wiring of course have also been changed but there is no accountability for exacly what/where. This is all because the work was done WITHOUT a permit.
My question is this. If I invite an LICENSED eletrician, and everything checks out okay, how can I make sure that if I do have some kind of incident in the future that the insurance company won't come back to me and say that "they will not cover the damage since this work was done without a permit". Is there any way to get a permit approval for work that was already done in the past?
By the way, there have never been ANY violations with the house for ANY reason.
We really LOVE the house, but the above two issues have us concerned.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
