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I'm a little confused about disclosure and am wondering about these two items.
Every two to three years I have roto rooter come out and clear the main. Tree roots from my neighbor's elm get in and require periodic removal. This is not an uncommon situation in homes built in the 50s that have trees on or near the property. To me it's a simple normal maintenance item and I never threw a fit over it. Is this something that requires disclosure or not?
Secondly I am using city water and if I am running both sets of sprinklers at full blast the water pressure isn't that great in the house. Flow out of the faucets is slower and the toilets won't refill if flushed until I lower pressure to one of the sprinklers. It has always been that way since I've lived here and I never cared enough to do anything about it. Is this also something I must disclose?
with a disclosure form is that it asks YES/No questions.
For example
Is the sewer in working order? Yes.
Don't elaborate.
If you are going to put something in the comments, make it innocuous.
For example
Range? No. "There is no range. There is a cooktop in working condition"
For example
Requirements for curb, vegetation gravel/paving, landscaping? Yes. "The City & County of Denver has requirements that: a) “unattended vegetation” must be cut if more than 6 inches in height and b) tree limbs over streets and alleys must be trimmed to at least 13 ½ feet above the ground; over sidewalks to a minimum of 8 feet"
For example
Any part of the Property leased to others (written or oral? Yes. "The house was rented out from July 1985 to January 1987."
My goal was to have as many unimportant, useless (who cares if the house was rented out 24 years earlier) comments so the readers' eyes would glaze over and they would pay less attention to serious comments.
I'm just giving an idea, as no one can "help" a seller fill out their disclosure notices, but under plumbing, you would check that it's in working condition and to the side put something about "Roto Rooter clears the roots every 2-3 years."
As for water pressure, most people know that in older homes, when water is being used in one place, there is less pressure some place else. That's also where you get the flushing of the toilet turns the water ice cold in the shower. I don't see anything to disclose on that part.
We lived in a similar house in Springfield, MO for 8 years. For 7 1/2 of those years, I put up with poor water pressure in the house. When you ran one thing, the other thing didn't work! I had the city test the water at the meter and the pressure was outstanding there. House built in the 50's, so the best anyone could come up with was the plumbing was old, and some crumbling blockages here and there was the culprit.
A few months before we ended up selling the house I was out front at the corner of our house, doing something - don't even remember what, and my neighbor was talking with me (older man, been there many years). I must have mentioned the pressure issue, and he said - have you checked the main cutoff valve? It could be damaged or something. ? Main cut off valve? HUH? He said "oh it should be right about where you're working there, front corner of the house, they usually put in a shutoff valve a couple of feet away from the foundation. "HUH?" We dug around a little bit and holy cow, there was the cutoff valve, buried in a few inches of dirt - and half closed. We opened it all the way and VOILA my water pressure problem in the house was immediately fixed. I cannot believe it! But, we were first time homeowners and while we were fairly knowledgeable for people in their early 20's, I had been raised on a ranch and never lived where there was city water, so had no idea of these possibilities! That happened to me about 30 some years ago, and I'm still laughing about it today, and trust me, I have always known since then, "Where is the main shut off valve"? (Not just the one at the meter)
So, check and see if you have one of these mysterious hidden shutoffs somewhere on your property!
We had something similar with a fireplace chimney. The seller told us to only use a few pieces of kindling or the fire would smoke...until we got it checked. We thought there might be a nest in there someplace. I cleaned the fireplace area of the soot, reaching around the back, and looked at the flue. I played with the damper knob, checking how it positioned the damper and finally figured out the problem they had for years.
One might think to turn the damper all the way one way to open, all the way the other way to close.
But there was a round damper attached at across it's middle. So to open it, the damper needed to be positioned straight up. In other words, the damper knob needed to go halfway. Not all the way. By turning the knob all the way, the previous owners had turned it past open to nearly closed again, hence the smoke.
Yeah the cutoff valve is under the house in the crawl space. I've turned it on/off a few times on my own for various reasons. So unfortunately unless the valve itself is not able to fully open any more due to age or damage I doubt that is the issue. The main is a 3/4".
One thing that I have wondered is if you add up the size of two garden hoses running full blast the overall diameter is probably at or over the main. So based only on that (which may not be a complete picture of the situation) it may not be a big surprise that the pressure is pretty far down when those hoses are going. Anyhow I am having the city come out to check the pressure today and I will also have a plumber check it out when I have them over for an unrelated issue in the next couple weeks.
Regarding the disclosure I appreciate the input. I have doubts leaving either of these issues off would result in me losing a potential lawsuit but in an effort to avoid any possible static over this I will put it on the disclosure anyway even if it has the possibility of threatening the sale.
I had the city check the pressure and they say it is fine. They gave my wife the impression that low pressure when both hoses are going is a normal thing. Especially in older homes it's not unusual to get lower pressure when someone flushes a toilet. However in this case although we can flush a toilet OK it will not fill back up at all or does so extremely slowly. Until we lower pressure on one of the hoses.
I am probably going to have a plumber out at some point to fix an item with my water heater. When he is out there I intend to quiz him about this.
One thing that I have wondered is if you add up the size of two garden hoses running full blast the overall diameter is probably at or over the main.
The square area is what is important.
For example:
1/2-inch ID hose x 2
3/4-inch ID main
0.25**2 * PI = 0.2 sq in
0.375**2 * PI = 0.44 sq in
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My experience
