Engineer says home purchase needs some work (how much, attorney)

[trusso11783]

He cited a few things that need to be done right away. Would anyone know a ball park figure it would take to rectify these items?

1 There is no drain pipe going from the central AC unit in the attic to the gutter. He noted that there was rust up in the drain pan of the AC unit, meaning it has nowhere to drain except to overflow into the attic.

2. the sidewalk leading to the laundry room door is sloped toward the house and needs to be completely replaced and graded away from the house. It is aproximately 10-15' long and maybe 3' wide. I have no idea how much concrete work costs. Sounds like it will be expensive.

3.Electrician has to install and seal a new PSEG service meter because of the leak and rust on the unit and inside the circuit panel. Not much rust but it is evident.

4.there is a hole in the of the house that leads to the attic directly behind the bathroom. Engineer thinks it is the vent for the bathroom fan. The tube that ran from the vent to hole is is no longer there. He said that they should be repaired right away because the vent is venting into the attic, which is not good, plus rain (and bees, as I have witnessed) can get in and he said a house cannot be legally sold if there are known leaks into the house. The biggest issue with these issues is there is no way to get to the smaller attic on top of the kitchen where the hole and vent hose are located.

[chetstash]

Seems very minor. Can #2 be solved by a French drain instead?

[RecentlyMoved]

I should think the SELLER has to take of the items that make their home "illegal" to sell in it's current state. 1, 2 and 4 sound very expensive - especially 2.

[long isle]

Originally Posted by trusso11783

He cited a few things that need to be done right away. Would anyone know a ball park figure it would take to rectify these items?

1 There is no drain pipe going from the central AC unit in the attic to the gutter. He noted that there was rust up in the drain pan of the AC unit, meaning it has nowhere to drain except to overflow into the attic.

2. the sidewalk leading to the laundry room door is sloped toward the house and needs to be completely replaced and graded away from the house. It is aproximately 10-15' long and maybe 3' wide. I have no idea how much concrete work costs. Sounds like it will be expensive.

3.Electrician has to install and seal a new PSEG service meter because of the leak and rust on the unit and inside the circuit panel. Not much rust but it is evident.

4.there is a hole in the of the house that leads to the attic directly behind the bathroom. Engineer thinks it is the vent for the bathroom fan. The tube that ran from the vent to hole is is no longer there. He said that they should be repaired right away because the vent is venting into the attic, which is not good, plus rain (and bees, as I have witnessed) can get in and he said a house cannot be legally sold if there are known leaks into the house. The biggest issue with these issues is there is no way to get to the smaller attic on top of the kitchen where the hole and vent hose are located.

1. Simple DYI job ...50$
2. Does the water enter the house or is it just precaution? 1500$
3. $500 with new meter pan.
4. Patch up siding/sheathing should be easy. To repipe fan and vent properly would be a bigger job.

[VA Yankee]

Originally Posted by trusso11783

He cited a few things that need to be done right away. Would anyone know a ball park figure it would take to rectify these items?

1 There is no drain pipe going from the central AC unit in the attic to the gutter. He noted that there was rust up in the drain pan of the AC unit, meaning it has nowhere to drain except to overflow into the attic.

2. the sidewalk leading to the laundry room door is sloped toward the house and needs to be completely replaced and graded away from the house. It is aproximately 10-15' long and maybe 3' wide. I have no idea how much concrete work costs. Sounds like it will be expensive.

3.Electrician has to install and seal a new PSEG service meter because of the leak and rust on the unit and inside the circuit panel. Not much rust but it is evident.

4.there is a hole in the of the house that leads to the attic directly behind the bathroom. Engineer thinks it is the vent for the bathroom fan. The tube that ran from the vent to hole is is no longer there. He said that they should be repaired right away because the vent is venting into the attic, which is not good, plus rain (and bees, as I have witnessed) can get in and he said a house cannot be legally sold if there are known leaks into the house. The biggest issue with these issues is there is no way to get to the smaller attic on top of the kitchen where the hole and vent hose are located.

First question, are these items discovered on a home inspection or are you the seller?

For your questions:

1) Central air has 2 drain pans a primary that is inside the air handler (attic in your case) and the secondary that the whole unit sits in. The lack of a drain pipe and rust in the secondary (external) pan mean you may have way more issues. The system should be checked by a professional, even down south a/c is never left to drain into the pan and evaporate into the air.

2) Sidewalks can be lifted if they've settle instead of replacing one, that may be cheaper.



3) Rust inside your circuit breaker panel, I would have an electrician do a thorough inspection.

4) I find it hard to believe the attic has no access, can they enlarge the bathroom hole and work through that to fix the pass through into the attic.

[AndreaII]

You can either get the sellers to fix everything on the list (they need to fix everything correctly and not skimp - watch out for that), or you can deduct an amount of money from the agreed upon selling price so you can hire the work out.

We had an issue here at our house with the AC catch pan being rusted out, and it turned out that almost everything on the interior mechanism was rusted and rotted out too. The units both inside and out were 39 years old. We ended up replacing not just the pan, but the whole interior mechanism (something like $4000 or so). Big bucks, but well worth it.

[trusso11783]

I am the buyer. These things were discovered by the engineer. He looked everywhere but could find no possible way to get into the higher attic. He said someone had to get in there at one time, especially because he sees new looking insulation but he thinks it was all sealed off since. There is no way to get in from the lower attic and this higher attic is in the rear of the house over the kitchen. There are no entrance ways into it. The hole on the outside of the house is about 3 or 4 inches wide. The bathroom is completely sealed up. The attic would be behind the mirror, which covers much of the wall.

I had no idea you could raise a sidewalk. If that could be done, that would be great. It is actually 25 x 2'.

I do not want the hole to be sealed because the bathroom vent will still be released into the attic.

[PC51]

We had a similar situation as #3 on your list when buying our house and we had the seller fix it. I think we had it written into the contract. The seller had no issue with it.

[nuts2uiam]

Try to get an idea of the costs to repair/replace all in question. Have your attorney draw the contract up to take care of these items and see if the sellers will agree or ask for a concession of X dollars (the above estimate number) to do it yourself. Assuming they want to sell and are reasonable you may get them to agree to all, as if your engineer found it it should be found by another engineer.

[william munny]

are you in contract yet? if so, talk to your lawyer.