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RSSDiscovered an Underground Oil Tank During Home Inspection
For the rental property we had under contract, we opted to go ahead and hire our own home inspector despite the property seller making available a home inspection report written by their own home inspector.
It turns out it was a worthy investment as our home inspector pointed out a number of items not documented in the inspection including evidence of an underground oil tank. We quickly confirmed there was still an underground oil tank on the property that the seller was unaware of.
The seller agreed to address the issue by hiring an environmental cleanup company to remove the tank and re-mediate the ground. It turned out the oil tank had leaked so the company needed to perform a limited site assessment including drilling a well to take ground water samples.
| Description | Charge |
| Oil tank removal/Initial Abatement | $10,108.21 |
| Limited Site Assessment | $4,767.00 |
| Well Abatement | $354.82 |
| Total | $15,230.03 |
The good news is the water/soil samples do not exceed state levels to add an addendum to the property deed. Since the seller quickly recognized they would need to address this anyway to sell the property, this issue didn't turn into a big hang up for the purchase. However I can see how oil tanks can be a major headache. In this case the seller was hit with an additional $15k in unexpected repairs to sell his property.
by 2million on
08/24/11
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Comments (8)
Just keep in mind that if you buy it and the EPA changes the rules in the future, you will be 100% responsible for the costs.
Posted by ParatrooperJJ | August 25, 2011 10:22 AM
First sentence should read "hire", not "higher".
Posted by Jame | August 25, 2011 11:34 AM
Well as long as we are going to point out errors: there own home inspector should be their own home inspector
Posted by Anonymous | August 25, 2011 7:17 PM
Good catch! Ugh. That would have been a costly expense for you in the future.
Posted by Investor Junkie | August 25, 2011 7:34 PM
Sounds like you got a lot of value for your own home inspection. That is great news and illustrates why you should always hire your own inspector.
Posted by cashflowmantra | August 26, 2011 6:05 AM
How does one discover an underground oil tank during home inspection! :)
Ours missed a water leak that was outside and home warranty won't cover it since it is outside!
Posted by Moneycone | August 26, 2011 8:02 AM
What is Underground Oil Tank for? Can you put it into use?
Posted by Travis | August 26, 2011 1:52 PM
2million, a hurricane is coming your way up the East Coast. Watch out!
Posted by Steve | August 27, 2011 10:40 AM