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I was assuming you wanted water on to do some inspections.
You can pressurize the system by running a hose from the hose faucet of the house next door to the hose faucet of house you are interested in. Unless of course they have back flow preventers on.
Of course I am not familiar with plumbing systems everywhere but I would think it should be workable.
Comeon...A thouisand gallons of water costs 2 or 3 bucks.
Here and many places the only one who can turn on utilities is the owner.
If they won't turn on the utilites don't buy the house. That simple.
As I said it might be market specific, but you don't just pay for the water used, you have to pay for the turn on and turn off, plus the electric company turning the power on and off in addition to the gas/propane being turned on and off. Many companies require deposits, and this can add up into the hundreds just to turn on utilities.
And no, you don't have to be the owner. If you call and tell them you're the buyer on a contract for the house, and have proof to show them, they will do a courtesy turn on for a couple of days in order for you to run inspections.
I have always written that seller to turn on utilities 24 hours prior to inspections and they have always been turned on. I do know that some banks have the "buyer to winterize again" after they are turned on, but most addendums I have seen don't have that.
Not sure what you can do at this point since the house was winterized before you made the offer. You can still inspect, but I personally think that is risky to move forward.
I have bought two REO in the last year. All utilities were on in both condominium cases. I had put it in the contract for them to have the utilities on.
I did hear a similar story about HUD, when I bought 1 about 9 years ago. I skipped it, saved about 100 bucks. The appraisal had already been done without. I quit paying for home inpectors in 1995, after finding out exactly what my home warranty was worth (not much). This is Arizona/Nevada so it is different as far as pipes freezing. It would be more of a crapshoot in Michigan, but I would only be paying 4 cents on the Dollar to begin with.
In my area it is customary for even the REO's to turn on utilities. Why? Because it is a problem to borrow $ on a home that has no functioning utilities - not saying it's impossible, but asking the bank to borrow + - a hundred grand on a home that doesn't have heat, water, or electric limits the buyer pool, $ down required etc. not to mention the $ amount a place will appraise for.
If there are plumbing leaks and you pressurize the system on your own, who pays for damages to sheet rock, wood floors, electrical shorts? Personally I would not want to open that can of worms - the last REO I had under contract had 3.5 baths over 3,000 sq foot victorian with a mish-mash of pipes that took forever to trace well enough to see where potential leaks were. One leak was under an addition with no crawl space and it wasn't until the plumber went outside and saw the snow melting in the yard that he discovered it - that was about 20 minutes after the fact - the damage was minimal, but that was dumb luck - also our gas company will not turn on gas lines until a functioning H20 system exists - IMO banks adhere to "let the buyer be ware" and at the same time they hope they will curb the buyers ability to actually become aware.
Oh ya and if it takes them too long to get the utilities on for inspection and closing to then occur on time they will slap you with their per Diem.
Here is what I do, as a buyer. Where I am in N.Idaho the houses are winterized and the banks will not turn on the water (in most cases). But they will the electric. I will go around and turn off all the valves, hose bibbs, everything. I will pressurize the system with 40 pounds of air, and go inspect they rest of the property. I will do this at the washer hook up. Really not to hard and if it is maybe you should not be buying a foreclosed property, Inspection is going to be the least of your problems in most cases.
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