Hidden house issues, or “seller caused”

[Mike Dorneman]

While I’m pretty sure I know the answer here, I figured I’d throw it out to you all as well! Closed on a deal yesterday, the inspection went well last week and final walkthrough as well day prior to closing. Homeowner didn’t want to run their boiler of have water service in a vacant house so he had the water meter removed. So as the story goes, when we had the water Co install the meter yesterday and restore service, the baseboard pipes started popping at the solder connections and quickly turned the first floor into a small waiting pool. Do I have any recourse here, or just bite the bullet and begin repairs on my own? Thanks!!

[Natalie Schanne]

Mike Dorneman - if you didn’t require water utilities to be on when you inspected the house, that’s on you. You were allowed to check out everything and you didn’t.

That being said you can always raise hell if it wasn’t on their seller disclosure and they should have known and willfully didn’t disclose and get them to pay at least part of it.

If contract is as-is and you were allowed to ask to inspect anything and you chose not to, it might be more challenging.

In all circumstances get 3-5 bids to repair, have repaired yourself directly ASAP, then sue/request for repair damages.

I usually get better plumbing prices from father and son teams than big outfits. Use only a licensed plumber.