Radon Gas in COLO Homes and its Mitigation (Highlands Ranch, Louisville: real estate, foreclosures)

[Terytee]

Coloradans,

I'm in the process of buying my first house in the Stetson Hills area and found a great place that I love. I just finished the inspection; lo and behold, there are high levels of radon in the finished basement.

I will have to look into radon mitigation and hopefully, the seller will pick-up the costs or at least meet me half way. I've done some research on-line and have become familiar with some of the mitigation techniques.

I have a feeling I may end up splitting the costs with the seller or saying goodbye to the whole deal and I don't want to lose the place.

Does anyone on this forum have any experience with how much something like this costs here in town?? Have you had radon mitigation devices installed??

Would appreciate any info.

Tks
Terytee

[BenWolfe]

I have sold several properties with Radon and it typically costs between $800 and $1200 to mitigate. Radon is a health/safety issue and I have never had the Buyer and Seller split the bill. In my opinion I would demand that the seller pay the entire bill. I have never had a seller terminate the contract because they had to pay for radon mitigation.

[Terytee]

Tks for the info Ben, the seller was quite angry when he saw the inspection discrepancies. He swore up and down that there was nothing wrong with the place and wouldn't pay for anything else.

My realtor and I submitted the formal discrepancy findings to his realtor and we have to wait until Friday to hear what the end result will be.

[BenWolfe]

Some sellers can get overly emotional and make irrational decisions as a result. Radon is odorless and colorless so the seller was probably unaware of the problem. Good luck and I hope the seller agrees to your generous alternative resolution.

[StillLookingToo]

I sold 2 homes in Monument, both had radon and I paid to fix it both times. I believe that would be protocal, particulary in a slow market. I think the company name was Johnson. No big deal.

[Terytee]

I did hear back from the seller on the radon and inspection items. He agreed to pay for the radon mitigation system and everything else....whew!! What a load off my mind.

[tx_heat]

Is the radon issue being considered during real estate transactions? Is there general awareness? If I would buy a house is it usual for inspectors to test for it? Do newer houses 'normally' have some mitigation system installed by builder? In addition to the area in general we'd like to know about this in Highlands Ranch and in Louisville/Superior/Brromfield/Erie areas in particular.

Thank you.

[tfox]

You'll always do a Radon test on every house you buy. If there's a problem, you can recommend that the sellers perform an active mitigation at their own expense, which almost always takes care of the radon issues.

In brand new construction these days, it's very likely the builder has already done testing and installed active mitigation if needed. However, this is no guarantee and you should perform your own test.

In practice, radon is not really something to get too worked up about. Although I would definitely mitigate the property in the case of a failed test, the bottom line is unless you sleep down in your basement you probably wouldn't suffer any ill effects from it. Active mitigation is not too expensive and fairly quickly and easily installed in cases where it is needed.

[BTNS_TX]

It was a standard test for our inspection on our house in Highlands Ranch, so I'd say there is a general awareness.

[BenWolfe]

Most inspectors charge about $100 to test for radon and about half the homes I sell fail the test. With the exception of foreclosures I have never had a seller refuse to pay the $800 - $1000 to mitigate a failed test.

With most new builds that I have sold the builder has not tested for radon, but they have a clause in the contract that if the buyer tests for radon and it fails they will install a mitigation system. If the house has a structural wood floor nearly every builder will install an exhaust fan in the craw space to reduce the humidity and this will expel the radon gas also (but I would still order a test to be sure).