PapillionWyngs Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Just bought a house - built in the 70's. Had an inspector - but in the middle of the inspection he found out that one of his sons was being sent to Iraq, and he just fell apart. I had had him on another inspection, and he did a great job. But on this one he missed some things. He did catch that there was something wrong with the tree in the back yard, and we had two tree companies come out and say that the tree needed to go - but the sellers wouldn't even contribute to half of the fees. Today, our dog dug around the tree, and we found sawdust, and yes, termites. It is a huge tree and has to come down asap.Also, tonight while cooking dinner, I found out that two of the newly installed GFCI outlets don't work. There are problems with both showers in the house, and I could go on and on.What is my recourse at this time?We do have the homeowner's warranty, but it is $55 per visit per craftsman. The tree will be around $1500.We are paying two mortgages.But not until October. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chenevert Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 You say not until October? That means you havent closed yet? You are still in the option period?If so, go get a competent inspector to inspect the house. Re-negotiate the price or possibly even walk away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PapillionWyngs Posted September 5, 2007 Author Share Posted September 5, 2007 You say not until October? That means you havent closed yet? You are still in the option period?If so, go get a competent inspector to inspect the house. Re-negotiate the price or possibly even walk away.No - no double payments until October. We are in the house, our other one is vacant.We own it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 What is my recourse at this time?did the inspector offer some type of guarantee in the contract? an inspector can't find everything wrong with a structure but sure can point out a lot that the average joe doesn't know. who installed the gfci outlets? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Those GFCIs may not be working because one of them is still off line so to speak. Go out the the garage and see if either of those need to be reset or maybe the one in the bathroom needs to be reset. As long as those termites were int he tree(crossing fingers) then I would first BAIT the tree to kill the mites, then cut it down. Have Terminix come out and do the house and the trees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREASER Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 Heres the deal, I had a similiar prob., and there are enough disclaimers in the inspection paper work that you really have no recourse. I did call and delicate flower and let them know I contacted a lawyer and was taking them to court (didnt really have one), and they were very helpful after that. They were mire than happy to state the owner knew about problems and werent propery disclosed. Then you can go back on the owners/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 Those GFCIs may not be working because one of them is still off line so to speak. Go out the the garage and see if either of those need to be reset or maybe the one in the bathroom needs to be reset.if they have it wired like this then pap and her husband got shafted. you only need one GFCI device to control the entire circuit downstream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumbles Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 (edited) You can possibly get your money back that you paid for the inspection. Not a great amount I am sure but it should cover a few of those $55.00 fees. It's unlikely that the warranty will cover any big ticket items. They have lots of exclusions like pre-existing conditions, rust and corrosion, etc. The smaller problems shouldn't be a big problem. Bad inspections seem to be the standard with the home inspection industry.Now you got me to wondering. Did you also hire a termite inspector? Normally a home inspector doesn't look for termites, that's a seperate inspection. It's been a long time since I had an inspection but I don't remember either of them checking the fence or anything in the yard cept for the outside of the house. Maybe you could get the previous owners for non-disclosure on the tree, but the trick is you have to prove they knew. Not an easy thing to do.As the other poster suggested it may be better to kill the termites before you remove their food. When trees are cut down termites often travel along the roots and up under the slab. Might not be a big problem if you have the house treated the same time you have the tree removed. Edited September 8, 2007 by mumbles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 (edited) if they have it wired like this then pap and her husband got shafted. you only need one GFCI device to control the entire circuit downstream.Remind me NOT to hire you as my electrician. It is always a good idea to have one in the bathroom one in the kitchen, one in the garage, and one outside. This way when it does pop, and those are the most likely places, because of water, you will know WHERE the source of the problem is.In fact it is CODE, to have these in those places if memory serves. Not code for her house when it was built perhaps, but I'll bet you dollars to donuts you wouldn't get away with it on any NEW construction of homes today. Edited September 8, 2007 by TJones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 (edited) Remind me NOT to hire you as my electrician. It is always a good idea to have one in the bathroom one in the kitchen, one in the garage, and one outside. This way when it does pop, and those are the most likely places, because of water, you will know WHERE the source of the problem is.In fact it is CODE, to have these in those places if memory serves. Not code for her house when it was built perhaps, but I'll bet you dollars to donuts you wouldn't get away with it on any NEW construction of homes today.of course it is always good to have separate GFCIs....if you want to have them on the same circuit as you're recommending....go ahead. .......because they are in different rooms doesn't mean they are on different dircuits.....there's a house down the street from me that burned earlier in the week. and their circuits were all on the same circuit breaker...burn baby burn. Edited September 8, 2007 by musicman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyHomeHouston Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 When you ask for recourse, I'm assuming you mean regarding the termites? If you are looking for some form of reimbursement from the previous sellers for the issue, then I'd revisit their "seller's disclosure" that you signed when you purchased the home. Were the termites disclosed?If you can prove that the termites were a known issue (to start, I'd call local termite companies and see if they have your address on file), then I'd pursue the matter further with a real estate attorney. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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