HVAC system incurring premature failures due to ventilation system short - seller / inspector didn't disclose. (sublease, apartment)

[asiatrails]

Basic question, did you have a buyers agent as a realtor of not?

Would suggest talking with the realtors broker for a way forward on this as you used an inspector they recommended

Legal action needs a pot of money to go after

FWIW a warranty contract can be purchased after you buy a house, just appreciate that the people they send out will band aid the crap out of everything before they will replace the unit. When they replace the unit you will get the minimum that they can get away with

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by asiatrails

Basic question, did you have a buyers agent as a realtor of not?

Would suggest talking with the realtors broker for a way forward on this as you used an inspector they recommended

Legal action needs a pot of money to go after

FWIW a warranty contract can be purchased after you buy a house, just appreciate that the people they send out will band aid the crap out of everything before they will replace the unit. When they replace the unit you will get the minimum that they can get away with

Realtor was a buyer's agent who knew the sellers agent.

I kind of had a hunch on that as far as warranty work goes. The HVAC company seems the same way. The system's parts are still technically under warranty but diagnosing and labor stills costs.

[Don in Austin]

I am having a hard time understanding what allegedly happened. Blaming parts failure on "surges" sounds dubious. A highly-rated independent HVAC contractor needs to evaluate this whole situation.

[Trainwreck20]

In our experience (which is not insignificant at this point in our lives), almost all HVAC contractors that install/service higher-end or more complicated units follow a flow-chart of some sort when doing repairs. It generally means that they replace the cheapest part that may be faulty and see if that works; then, they go on to the next cheapest. There is quite a bit of diagnostic knowledge used to create the 'flow chart', so it is not generally bad, but there is basically no input from the contractor in the field other than an error code or general system problem. This means that they really can't skip to what the most likely problem is, or use their own experience to make a decision.

We recently had an issue with a very new 'high end' unit and after several attempts to get an error code to stop appearing by replacing increasingly more expensive pieces (and a resulting loss of cooling capacity during the error codes), the problem finally got elevated to a manufacturer rep. He came out and spent several hours at the house along with the installer techs. He finally correct diagnosed the problem and it was NOTHING that the flow chart would have ever fixed.

Not sure where I am going with all this, but I guess it is that the typical installer, even if they are very good, are not necessarily equipped to handle relatively unique situations. In our situation, it cost us nothing out of pocket except repeated trips home to meet the techs. The unit is a Carrier brand, and I can't say enough good things about how they stepped up to diagnose the issue and get it corrected.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

Camaro, did you get a home warranty policy(aren't they automatic in Texas?)?. That might save some grief.

They aren't "automatic", but it is common (as in, almost always) for the buyer to request that the seller pay for a one year homeowner's warranty at closing and for the seller to do so. It appears that the OP did not request one, but it would be worth checking to make sure.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

I see. I'm just dead curious, is the inspector liable in any way? I'm also trying to reach an attorney but most dealing with real estate probably wont get back to me till Monday.

I'm in litigation, and a couple of years ago we had a "failure to disclose" case against a seller. You're going to have a tough time pinning the blame on the inspector. Not saying that it's not possible and this is not legal advice, but there's a clause in most contracts that protects them in some way. Can't recall verbatim, but if you look at the fine print there's always something in there that protects their exposure. We ended up abandoning our efforts against the inspector, if I recall, btw.

[riaelise]

BTW, good luck Camaro. Sorry you're going through this

I'm a little bitter against our seller but have come to accept it since the house is great.

[Jude24]

As for the actual system problem, I would love to know what that system is. Honeywell ventilation system sounds odd, but I suspect it may be what is referred to as a "zoning system" which modulates zone dampers to different areas and also a bypass damper to direct air back to the unit when the zone dampers are restricting too much airflow. It is a bad idea on an A/C unit, and worse on a heat pump. It will be much more problematic during heating than in cooling. They tend to be compressor killers. The damper settings are critical, as are the limitation of thermostat settings. If that is what it is and a service tech is replacing fuses and looking at troubleshooting guide instead of checking your pressures and finding out what the problem really is, you have the wrong person looking at it.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Jude24

As for the actual system problem, I would love to know what that system is. Honeywell ventilation system sounds odd, but I suspect it may be what is referred to as a "zoning system" which modulates zone dampers to different areas and also a bypass damper to direct air back to the unit when the zone dampers are restricting too much airflow. It is a bad idea on an A/C unit, and worse on a heat pump. It will be much more problematic during heating than in cooling. They tend to be compressor killers. The damper settings are critical, as are the limitation of thermostat settings. If that is what it is and a service tech is replacing fuses and looking at troubleshooting guide instead of checking your pressures and finding out what the problem really is, you have the wrong person looking at it.

Yeah, I was trying to figure this out, as well.

https://forwardthinking.honeywellhom..._products.html

which are supposed to keep the air in the house 'cleaner' by exchanging more air than a traditional system. I know next to nothing about them personally, though, but I suppose they are electronically joined to your HVAC system and it could theoretically cause problems via electrical surges, although not sure why that would be occurring. If it is Honeywell, it might be worth checking into their warranty - it looks like they have 5-year warranties.

If it is a damper system like Jude is talking about, that is a whole 'nuther thing. We looked into zoned HVAC units but came to the conclusion that systems with a bypass were too risky and we went with a variable speed unit (https://www.carrier.com/residential/...-pumps/25vna0/) in conjunction with motorized dampers. It essentially cannot back-pressure to the point that it damages the system. Bypass systems with run at one (or sometimes two or three) set speed end up recirculating (bypassing back to the compressor) too much air and it stresses the compressor. If that is your system, you will need someone with a lot of 'street knowledge' on how to balance your system and limit the worst-case operating scenarios.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

They aren't "automatic", but it is common (as in, almost always) for the buyer to request that the seller pay for a one year homeowner's warranty at closing and for the seller to do so. It appears that the OP did not request one, but it would be worth checking to make sure.

That’s what I did unsolicited & not required in 1995 when we sold our Four Season neighborhood house - a 12 month warranty for the central heat & air, wiring, plumbing, etc. I even had all the 5 year old carpeting steam cleaned after we moved out just to be nice.
13 months later the buyer called and said the a/c compressor had just gone out.... and what was I going to do about it?