Foundation issues found one year after purchase.

[Tom Wallace]

I purchased my first duplex in Plymouth PA December of 2022 via FHA financing as a house hack. It is an old home built in the 20s and we have some sloping and sagging floors that were reported in our initial inspection but was wrote off as "probably due to long term settlement" so I didn't do too much more looking into it as I felt anything major would have been reported in the inspection (mistake #1) We have since been living there, and planned on BRRRRing and hold the property long term. We did some rehab.... new paint throughout, new carpets in upstairs, and a brand new bathroom in one unit. My contractor had helped me support the sagging flooring in the middle and seemed to work well. We were also about to put brand new LVP flooring throughout the downstairs when we noticed this issue....

Recently, we had noticed the slope in our upstairs bedroom getting slightly worse, our window wouldn't close and it feels like some floorboards underneath the carpet are starting to come up so we contacted a foundation/basement company to come look at the issue. The company had found some serious foundation issues in the back of the home and recommends installing two PushPiers as well as a handful of smartjacks throughout the basement and one on the first floor. Our quote was for $13k and that depletes my entire cash reserves (mistake #2 not having proper reserves). We got a second opinion but that company wanted to do even more work basically gutting and replacing every supporting beam in the basement and was quoted over $40k.

It was recommended to me that I get a structural engineer on property to do an inspection but that costs $1500 so I'm not sure if I should spend that money or just get the work the original company suggested done. As of now we have a date set for them to come do the $13k of work but we have till March 19 before we need a down payment and commit to the work.

I have a few questions....

1. Has anyone experienced a situation like this and what is the best course of action to take.

2. Shouldn't major foundation issues be something that should be reported in home inspection at purchase? I thought at the time that a home inspector is there to go through the home with a fine tooth comb and bring up every issue. There is nothing at all mentioned about the foundation. Was there negligence here and is some sort of litigation something I should be considering? I'm not looking to sue people and get tied up in expensive litigation fees but is it something I should consider?

Basically I am asking.... what should I do?

Any advice or input is greatly appreciated!!

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Bret M.:

That's tough / may need to reach out to an attorney 

An attorney for what ?  no way will a home inspector be liable for this.. houses settle especially 100 plus year old ones.  next one of this age the thing to do is hire the structural engineer on top of the home inspector if your worried about it.