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This is absolutely the worse excuse I've heard of regarding no home inspection. Even for first time home buyer. Home warranty and home inspection are two totally different things.
Have to agree. We are living in a time when no one wants to take one iota of responsibility for themselves. Don't buy real estate if you can't manage the transaction and all its moving parts. Even with a realtor and an attorney.
Okay okay, she messed up. Before you panic, OP, please go help her find the shut-off. I'm sure it was shut off to disguise a leaky faucet or something. NO BIG DEAL. Give the kids a bird bath and look around for a water valve that is perpendicular to the water line. Or something like that. I'd check for that before hiring a plumber.
Hello, my daughter just purchased a home in Kern County, CA. Escrow closed on Wednesday and they moved in on Thursday. Well she went to give the kids a bath in their bathroom and found out that there is water to everything else in the house but the bathtub. This was not disclosed to them in any of the paperwork. They do have a Home Warranty that was paid for by the selling agent who is also the listing agent. I told her to contact the agent as this should have been disclosed to them. They have 4 small children and paid over 250K for this house you would think someone should have told them.
Thanks for any advise.
Catherine
Catherine, call it a comedy of errors if you want {and lessons for "next time"}:
There are 3 ways your daughter could have found this out:
1} test the water herself at looking phase.
2} have a home inspection PRIOR to closing OF HER OWN. A GOOD inspector will test water flow at all faucets.
3} at the pre-closing run-through, she could have tested the water again!
I assume, then, that you have never bought a house, or if you did, you lucked out and the indoor plumbing worked for you. Elsewise you should have alerted her as to what to do in the buying process.
To Catherine, her daughter for future references, and OTHERS:
I have always gone to look at ANY place..rentals, or now buying a new home again..with a tablet and pencil and tape measure. I write down the shape of rooms, relationships to other rooms, and measurements. I also test all faucets and appliances, and the toilets too! I check EVERYTHING,and if I like it enough, GO BACK and test again! ALWAYS HAVE.
Just because someone says "it'll be fixed' or "its working' or the like, DOESN'T MEAN I TAKE THEIR WORD FOR IT! I have INSPECTIONS for renting or buying.
1-call a plumber and find out what the problem is
2- have plumber fix the problem
3- Give the kids a bath
4-keep receipt and file a claim with the home warranty company
I would think that a person who could afford a $250K house would be able to pay a couple hundred to a plumber to fix the issue. It's really not that hard to get water to a bath tub.
Also I would be suspicious of anyone saying you don't 'need' an inspection for any reason, warranty or not. Definitely suspect behavior.
A home warranty will not cover things that were wrong with the house before you bought it. They would never be able to stay in business that way.
There’s an awful lot of over reacting here. The tub doesn’t work. Get a plumber out and fix it. I wouldn’t just turn on the valve and see what happens unless I was prepared to deal with the consequences. It was turned off for a reason, might be a very minor problem though.
I can’t imagine buying a house with no inspection, but she did. I hope it was a good deal, and if so I’d expect a few things to be wrong. I’ve never bought a house without things that needed fixing, that’s just a completely foreign concept to me, and a bit delusional.
The pitchfork and "someone must pay!" attitude so many people have is wearying. I would hope someone that just bought a $250k house is going to be bankrupted by a plumbing bill for a couple hundred dollars. If so they might need to rethink the plan. If it turns out the pipes all explode and the tub falls through the floor, then get out the pitchforks.
There’s an awful lot of over reacting here. The tub doesn’t work. Get a plumber out and fix it. I wouldn’t just turn on the valve and see what happens unless I was prepared to deal with the consequences. It was turned off for a reason, might be a very minor problem though.
I bet it was shut-off to hide a leaking/dripping tub faucet. I'd be poking around for shutoffs to see what the deal is. If the entire house has water, except for this tub, then either the faucet is broken, or there are shutoffs somewhere.
Of course, hopefully this isn't the case here, but I have seen shutoffs buried in the wall strictly used for closing water off to replace the faucet. Of coutse, wall needs to come down to access them.
I'm strongly in the camp of "I can't believe she didn't get a home inspection!!!". But, in all honesty, this isn't an expensive problem in relation to all of the money that was spent at closing. So my advice is to just fix it and move on!
I understand why many of you are saying that it is probably no big deal and just get a plumber out to fix it. However, there is a bigger issue (at least to me) that there is an agent out there who is either woefully untrained or deliberately misleading buyers. For those who argue that the buyer should have known better, I disagree. Many do, many don't; but a buyer should be able to rely on his/her agent to provide guidance and should be able to do so without worrying about it. I know there is a common misconception out there that Realtors are untrustworthy or only out for themselves but I would bet that 99% are primarily concerned with doing a good job for their customers or clients. Telling a buyer that an inspection is not needed for any reason (if that is what happened) shouldn't be allowed to stand unpunished or, at least, uncorrected.
I understand why many of you are saying that it is probably no big deal and just get a plumber out to fix it. However, there is a bigger issue (at least to me) that there is an agent out there who is either woefully untrained or deliberately misleading buyers. For those who argue that the buyer should have known better, I disagree. Many do, many don't; but a buyer should be able to rely on his/her agent to provide guidance and should be able to do so without worrying about it. I know there is a common misconception out there that Realtors are untrustworthy or only out for themselves but I would bet that 99% are primarily concerned with doing a good job for their customers or clients. Telling a buyer that an inspection is not needed for any reason (if that is what happened) shouldn't be allowed to stand unpunished or, at least, uncorrected.
I agree so much with you here. Why do so many make the argument that it is OK for an agent to not know what they're doing? If it's really on the buyer why pay an agent?
I want to address what happened here. I've heard of this happening again and again. Why do so many agents think that a home warranty will fix things that are wrong with the house before you put in the offer? Let me get this straight. I buy and renovate fixers, so all I really need to do is buy the fixer and a home warranty? No, that would be stupid, but it's the same flawed idea no matter how big or small the repair.
Two observations.
1. There is usually a separate shut off valve for hot and cold water. If there is no water at all coming from the bath faucet, then it is likely that both hot and cold are off. That would make me believe that there is an issue with the faucet that caused the seller to isolate the leaking faucet. If the shut off valves are on then the faucet is bad. I have seen that once before. Either way, assuming there is nothing more serious required than a new faucet, a plumber should be able to do that in an hour + the cost of a new faucet. This assumes that the plumber can get to the faucet, which is not a certainty by any means. If the plumber has to pull tiles, sheetrock etc, then it is going to be expensive and messy.
2. Isn't Kern Co. one of the driest counties in the whole State? Perhaps the seller turned off the shut off valves to conserve water and stop their kids splish splashing in 30 gallons of precious water. Perhaps the OP's daughter might want to consider introducing their kids to showers?
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No, that would be stupid, but it's the same flawed idea no matter how big or small the repair.
