Seller will not activate utilities & other questions regarding property repairs

[Account Closed]

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking about making a property on a property, however, the bank won't allow me to activate utilities. How does that work during the inspection period? What are the downsides and how badly can this hurt my repair estimates? I'm familiar with the most general repair costs on a property. But I noticed the ceilling was damaged in some parts of the property. What are the costs associated for repairing this?

[Adam Johnson]

I am going to take a wild guess and assume that there was some freeze damage to the plumbing here and that is what you are concerned about.  We do property preservation work on foreclosures and your pictures indicate either a roof problem or plumbing problem MIGHT exist.  Is there a bathroom or other water using fixture above your picture of the bathroom with the ceiling down?  If so, plumbing damage is quite possible.

Here are a couple of clues.  I notice you are in Chicago, so I will assume the property is nearby.  If there are winterization stickers on any of the fixtures, what are the dates on the stickers?  If it shows it was winterized in October or November, it may have been winterized prior to freezing.  This is not a guarantee, only a clue.  This also assumes that it was CORRECTLY winterized.  Homes winterized in mid- to late-winter have a much higher chance of being freeze damaged before they were winterized.

If you are concerned about freeze damage, here is an easy way to check the pipes without utilities.  It will require a generator if the power is off, an air compressor, an adaptor to go from air fittings to female hose threads.  All of the fittings you need are available at the big box home centers, it will likely take a few.  You can also use a wheelbarrow type air compressor with a gas engine, but you will need enough hose so you can run it outside.

Find either an outside hose connection or a washer connection point.  If there is a laundry sink, sometimes those faucets are male hose threads.  Connect the the female hose thread end of your adapter to the connection point and the other end to the air compressor (or hose from an air compressor).  Reduce the output pressure to about 30-40 PSI and fire it up.  Walk around and listen for air hissing.  This works better with a larger air compressor that puts out more CFM, ideally more than 3 CFM is what you want.

Walk around and make sure all faucets are shut off.  You will also need to shut off the valves under toilet tanks and/or prop up the float in the tank to shut air flow off through the flush valves.  If the system builds pressure (can take up to 15 minutes depending on air compressor output, number of water heaters, and size of the home), build it to around 30 PSI, then shut down the compressor.  If you hear air hissing, see if you can figure out where it is hissing from.  That's one of your leaks.

Note that almost every house will have a few minor leaks.  If you can build pressure at all, you are probably looking at mostly minor repairs.  If it builds slow or leaks down quickly after shutting off the air compressor, you may have bigger problems.

Also note that if you have a tough time building pressure at all, if you can isolate the water heater by shutting valves off and get IT to hold air, you can use it like a big reservoir.  Fill the water heater to pressure (30-40), shut off your air compressor, then open the valves.  You will hear the air movement through the pipes, but you have a better chance of also hearing leaks because you won't have the noise of the compressor in the background.

If you aren't comfortable doing this yourself, you can hire a plumber to do it for you.  A HUGE advantage of leak testing with air as opposed to water is that air doesn't make a mess and doesn't damage anything (unless you blow through the pipes at 120 PSI).  This may be why the bank doesn't permit utilities to be restored.  It is also possible that there is a large water bill outstanding (common if the pipes burst) and the utility won't allow it to be turned back on  until it is paid in full.

Good luck!