Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I said that if I found out before signing that there was this much damage (and I could have if my agent listened to me), I would have just walked away right then and would have saved that $450 for inspection on another house, not to mention the time invested.
The seller seems to have made a very honest and thorough effort to repair the damage from the failed water heater. The fact that a professional inspector found no evidence of issues should be reassuring.
While I can understand the OP or any buyer might be concerned about potentially higher insurance premiums the information, as presented, should NOT trigger a hike -- in fact it is very likely that the seller has learned from this water heater failure and probably took steps to have a catch pan and water alarms installed so that such a repeat is much more unlikely...
It would be wonderful if there was some "magic future problem prediction device" that buyers could use to screen out homes but the OP needs to understand that, given current technology, buying a home that has had professionals address any sort of issue is generally a better way to rule out such problems than even buying a "brand new" home. The quality of everything from the carpet to the water heaters and paint that tract builders use is generally inferior to what competent professionals will use in a repair / restoration situation.
While I don't want merely to "sugar coat" what is undoubtedly a stressful situation, the OP should really be aware that the property they are considering is essentially "upgraded" and future issues are mostly just not a likelihood that should cause them to skip this deal.
How it flooded the house that much makes you wonder though how long since the overflow before it was discovered.
Our neighborhood has all the water heaters in the attic in a mechanical area outside a finished 3rd floor. Someone down the stree rang my bell at like 11:10 one night andnsaidntheybhad just gotten home after being gone since 9:00AM and did I know anything about plumbing because their water heater was leaking. I got a couple channel locks and headed down there where water was running out of the house and into the street. It was pouring through light fixtures on every floor and on beds, carpet and hardwoods and standing an inch on each floor. I got it turned off for them and they then had a similar sounding repair to what you describe.
One look at their water heater and anyone shod have seen it coming. Covered in rust in several places due to slow leaks seeping into the insulation. The drain pan must have handled any small amount of water, but when it let go, the poorly installed connection at the pan let water by into th house. I installed an automatic shutdown valve on mine the next week.
Modern building codes are increasingly responsive to having overflow pans connected to either a sanitary drain line (for wash machines, which have gray water in them...) or simply an "overflow pipe" for water heaters which have only potable water to deal with...
This happened in 2014 so the owners still lived there for about 2 years. I could do more investigating on this like you and some others suggest, but option period ends in 2 days. I'd have to pay for it to be extended, and it would have to be extended long enough for me to have time for water damage inspection, mold and termite inspection, making sure I won't get charged higher for insurance, etc. I'm already bummed that we didn't find this out before we signed the contract and paid $450 for inspection. When I read the disclosure before signing the contract, I asked the agent to request for documentation of repairs but she insisted that we do this during option period. Had I found this out before signing, I would have probably just walked away and save us all time.
Well,like I said sometimes the jobs turn out better than the house was before the water damage.
That hard floor....I am familiar with concrete where a vapor barrier is put down first and then the floor product. It couldn't be a good thing for a vapor barrier to get water on it.
Does this fall under misrepresentation? The agent insisting, your not knowing before signing...if I'm understanding what you're saying sounds like agent and buyer could be misrepresenting the house and the agent forcing what he/she shouldn't. Just a thought if you feel you want to look into getting out of it or at least getting an extension. Perhaps make an arrangement where you might buy and might not sue, whatever, if you get that extension.
When you say pay for the extension, do you mean for the loan commitment to be extended?
Termite inspections are very common in some areas...don't understand you weren't given time for that.
The seller disclosed that there was water damage in the home caused by water heater malfunction in 2014. I had no idea what a big mess they had to deal with until I asked for documentation of repairs. The records say that pretty much the entire house was affected. It's a 2-story home and the documented repairs included:
*water extraction and carpet removal/replacement in halls upstairs, the game room, closets,
*water extraction and carpet removal/replacement in master bedroom and closet, as well as tearing of base boards
* tearing of drywall and baseboards in the utility room
* tearing of base boards in the kitchen and water extraction
* replacement of the wood flooring in the office (downstairs)
* removal of carpet on stairs
The water heater obviously had an overflow. There was A LOT of money involved in these repairs per the documentation. I'm talking between $60K- $80K total. Now this scares me, and my option period ends this Friday. I had inspection done and the inspector said he didn't see enough evidence of moisture in the walls after using his thermal scanner. Should I worry about molds? What other problems could possibly arise from this water damage in the future? Would you walk away now if you were the buyer?
I would get a good mold inspection done, and probably go ahead and buy if it came out OK. As many others have said, a well-repaired event can end up making the house better than it was before. On the other hand, if you know it will always prey on your mind, walk away from it.
How it flooded the house that much makes you wonder though how long since the overflow before it was discovered.
When it rains out, the rain from the top of my driveway makes it's path and gets to the bottom of the driveway in less than 2 minutes. It's running over 200 feet. My driveway does have a small slope, but water moves. It doesn't sit still. This flooding could have happened in a few minutes or a few hours. They seriously took care of everything! I wouldn't worry. You'll find every single house has some issue.
This happened in 2014 so the owners still lived there for about 2 years. I could do more investigating on this like you and some others suggest, but option period ends in 2 days. I'd have to pay for it to be extended, and it would have to be extended long enough for me to have time for water damage inspection, mold and termite inspection, making sure I won't get charged higher for insurance, etc. I'm already bummed that we didn't find this out before we signed the contract and paid $450 for inspection. When I read the disclosure before signing the contract, I asked the agent to request for documentation of repairs but she insisted that we do this during option period. Had I found this out before signing, I would have probably just walked away and save us all time.
It's been 2 years! If they don't have a mold problem by now, they won't have a mold problem from the leak. It would have turned up ages ago.
Wow. A simple drain pan underneath the water heater would most likely have prevented this, yes? What a headache.
Unless it filled up and no one saw it right away.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
