All Forum Posts by: Laura Sullivan

I have no doubt that you are correct! Thank you for your wonderful advice and for responding so quickly! I really appreciate your time! 

Thank you for the advice! That sounds like a relatively quick way to remedy the problem. Do you think it is worth my time to pursue compensation for paying for work that was not done by the plumber or should I consider it a lesson learned? If the guy wasn’t such a jerk to me I’d have an easier time moving on without looking back! I guess I just need an objective perspective! 

I made a rookie mistake. Yes I am stupid. Looking for advice to make the most of the situation.

I am currently undergoing a major rehab. A new heating system was put in so all the radiators were replaced with baseboard heating because that was a lot less expensive. The contract with the plumber specifically included the removal of the radiators. We have 10 of them in total on 2 floors and they are super heavy. When the work was done I stupidly paid the balance even though the radiators were still in each room. The plumber said he would be coming by to remove them. I had literally just had a baby days before so I wasn’t really functioning at full brain capacity. So here I am a few months later stuck with heavy radiators that I can’t move myself. Anytime I have contacted him he says he is looking into finding someone to take them and blows me off and complains about how heavy they are. My standpoint is he knew how heavy they were before he wrote the contract and gave me a price for the job. 

I am now at the point where all I have left is painting and I don’t want the presence of the radiators to put me behind in getting a tenant moved in. 

I was going to reach out one last time and give him an ultimatum to fulfill the terms of the contract or provide me with a partial refund to hire someone else to remove them. The entire job was $6500. Do you think $50 per radiator would cover getting someone else to come in and remove them.

What should I do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated for moving forward from this terrible mistake I made!

Thank you for the response, Chris! Good point about getting stuck with an empty propane tank at the end of tenancy. I had not considered that!

We purchased a single family foreclosure that did not have a CO at the time of closing. The oil burner needs to be replaced. Furthermore, the building inspector has informed us that the oil tank needs to be moved. It is in the basement. The professionals we have consulted have quoted us $9k. However, in exploring options we found that it is pretty much the same cost to convert to either natural gas or propane (price includes removing oil tank).

We are in Dutchess County, NY. We contacted Central Hudson Gas & Electric and it took 3 months for them to come out to the home to measure for the gas line. It has now been 2 months since they measured and they have no time frame for running the line. We have been calling them twice a week for 5 months and at this point are very frustrated. They are the gas supplier and there is no fee to have them run the line from the street and apparently only they can do it. 

So, we thought that maybe we should look into propane. It would be used to heat the house and the water. No other appliances would operate on propane.

Please advise on what course of action would be most cost effective. Should we wait it out for natural gas indefinitely or switch to propane. Single family 1600 square foot home intended for rental property hopefully sooner rather than later!

Thank you for your help!

Just wanted to follow up.  This is still a work in progress.  I have been waiting over 10 days for return phone call or email from lawyer.  I contacted the real estate agent and was provided with a document from the municipality that she had emailed both attorneys the day before closing with the water/sewer charge to date and the sanitation charge to date.  Also we got stuck with the sanitation fee from the previous year tacked onto the tax bill we received in January.  All of these numbers were disclosed on 12/26 to both attorneys.  The seller (bank) never paid them and now we are responsible as they are attached to the property.  I will be calling the closing agent today as well as the title company (but they may be one in the same I have to check).  

I'll be in touch to let you know!

Yes, I’m definitely making phone calls in the morning!  The bill specifically lists a date range of usage that is prior to the closing.  

It’s not a terribly huge bill as the home was winterized but there is still a service fee and sewer is a standard charge.  

Being my first experience buying a foreclosure I want to learn from this experience and be smarter walking into the next one!  I’m disappointed in myself for not thinking of water and sewer charges knowing that santitation was brought up.  I’m just wondering if this should have been caught by anyone (other than myself)...attorney, realtor, title company?  I did pay them all to represent my best interest in the transaction and in retrospect I was thinking that water and sewer are common charges that are billed to the property as opposed to a person so did someone drop the ball?  

I’m not necessarily looking to place blame.  I’m really trying to figure out for my next purchase should I use the same realtor, attorney, and title company.

Thank you again for engaging in this dialogue with me.  I have found the information on this website to be invaluable.

Thank you for responding.  The credit we received was only to cover the outstanding sanitation bill.  This was the only bill addressed at closing.

 My inquiry is based on the water and sewer bill we received for a time period where the bank owned the home, prior to us closing on it that was billed to us from the city after we closed.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!