Home Inspection Nightmare.... h-e-l-p ?
I took advice and had my home inspected before I bought it so that I would have peace of mind when I bought it. Less than a week after I moved in my toilet started backing up and even coming up through the bathtub. I had a plumber come out and he said my sewer lines were full of tree roots and I would need to have all new sewer lines put in and that the inspector should have known the plumbing was bad because of the water pressure from the stool. What can I do now that I have already moved in and bought the house? Could I sue the guy who did my inspection or am I basically out of luck??? ANY help would be appreciated. I was told it would be at least $1500 to replace the sewer lines and I am flat broke after just buying this house. HELP!!!!
Public Comments
- SNAP! M :)
- You should ask a lawyer, maybe a real estate attorney.
- I am sure that on your inspection form it states that they are not liable. I feel for you. You could try small claims court, but I think it is a waste of your time.
- some agencies has a policy, or insurance on a st amount of days after you bought a place , they should be able to fix it for you.check to see. If not try to sue the inspector!
- Call a different plumber....I recommend Roto Rooter. They have a tool that will drill out the roots to open it up. After they do that, go to Lowes and buy yourself some Copper Sulfate. It'll be in the plumbing section. Add that to your system as instructed and you'll be fine. Seriously.....It's fixable, and not very expensive. Sounds like the plumber that you called is trying to get himself a xmas bonus. You should also be careful, at least for now, what is being flushed. Try to limit the paper products, or ANYthing that you didn't already eat! The fact that it wasn't stopped up when you first moved in, but did so very soon, tells me that you may be flushing too much fibrous material.
- get roto rooter or sombody to use an auger through your lines to get the tree roots, then you will prol have to have some trees cut down (maples are bad about leaching into pipes). save all your recipes.. get in touch with a attorney... you may be able to sue for reimbursments.... if you have a broken tile then you really need to have the whole thing replaced.... and again, contact your attorney. you may also want to contact your realator too.. they may have some pull or be able to point you in the right direction. also talk to your neighbors, see if they know if the previous owners had any sewer problems.. if they were disclosed at the time of sale they can be in default too. (We bought a house with a HUGE drainage problem in t he back yard, not just the small pooling of water the sellers listed.... and all the neighbors knew about it....) good luck to you hun.
- contact the inspector, here in nc they have to be lic. tell him he is to pay for all damages..if he doesnt then contact a lawyer then call ur local building inspector and see if he can give u a contact # for the state inspector..u may need to call ur local district atty. and get him involved.....more than likely the inspector is insured and u 2 can work it out..... lic. gen. contractor
- Honey: call that inspector right back. Tell him to get his little butt back and take a look. He's libel for any damages to your property that he missed, this is why you paid him. Most likely you can resolve this with him by calling RotoRouter and get them out. That plumber is giving you a line too. They can rout the lines out with a special tool. Don't worry it's not all that bad, that inspector should pay for it and, back it up.
- a fast fix may be to call roto rutter. they can snake the lines and may be able to get the roots out. problem is that the roots will grow back , if they can get them out. I would check to see if your state had a law on the inspection part, some states do and others don't.
- Sweetie, unless your inspector had errors and omissions insurance, you are out of luck, because he will say it was a condition that he couldnt possibly detect. Oh by the way.....my parents had a beautiful magnolia tree that used to clog their lines every year....it started at 150 in the early 80's to snake it out, but by when it got up to 300 bucks, they had the tree pulled out...these were the same lines as yours, the ones that connect the house to the city sewer...there house was on a slab, so they had to dig a 3 foot hole to get to the clean out, but after the first time, they just put a door over it for next year.
- I am sorry to say that the plumbing repair is your responsibility. If you had someone look at a car for you that you were interested in buying and after the sale you had problems you would not expect this person to pay for the repair. Home inspectors can only give a educated guess at best. Here is a company that can help. NU Flow 1 800 834 9597. They can rotor rutter your roots and they have a system that they can install new sewer pipes within the old pipes with no digging. Good luck
- When a person puts a house on the market through real estate there is a form you fill out with all kinds of questions that are suppose to be answered truthfully. If you lie about anything you are responsible to the person who bought your house if they have a problem right off the bat. As a matter of fact they can be in big trouble. I doubt within a week of moving in you started having a problem they were not aware of. Talk to a few neighbors, maybe they seen plumbers over there a few times. Talk to the real estate person, talk to the inspector and if they all give you a bunch of bull, which they probally will... then get a lawyer. Maybe you could get some free legal advice. My heart goes out to you, I know what its like to be broke and have something major happen. Try not to let these people pass the buck, whatever it takes. Someone need to be accountable.
- Checking the sewer line is not normally part of a home inspection by most standards of practice. Home inspections are typically limited to the visible portions of the home and the sewer line is not visible unless you use special equipment. BTW a sewer line inspection is usually about the same cost as a typical home inspection, sometimes more. Don't sue your inspector, it just adds to the expense of home inspections for everyone else. http://www.safe-family-home-inspection.com
- call the real estate agent and explain the situation they should take care of the problem also look at your disclosure sheet from the previous owner and see if they mentioned this problem a thing like this doesn't just happen if you don't get anywhere with the agent go to a real estate attorney and have him send a nasty gram to appropriate parties that should do the trick might cost you $50.00 if that doesn't do it pursue further legal action the law is on your side with this one good luck
