Bad news from Mr. Rooter...need advice

[amz155]

We had Mr. Rooter over today to help diagnose why we are getting water in the basement every time we have a heavy rain.

His diagnosis was that the drainage system around our house was not installed correctly. There are some of the problems he noted:

-no access to weeping tile (so he can't send a camera down), apparently there is supposed to be access to it

-window wells not installed corectly; windows not sealed properly

-no plastic barrier installed against foundation

-He mentioned that there was no way a City in spector would approve the work; that the previous owner must have done it as cheaply as possible and not to code

He siad the only way to fix the problem is to dig down 7-8 feet, install or replace weeping tile, install the plastic barrier. The minimum length they'd need to do to repair the area that is most likely causing the leak into the basement is 29 feet long. And that's JUST to target the piece that's leaking into the basement. Though really, the entire perimeter of the house should be done properly. At $260 per foot, we are looking at $7500 before tax, at minimum to do it.

We are scheduled to put our house up for sale in September. We don't really have extra money to use for the repair.

How would this affect us when we found a buyer? Would we have to disclose the issue or relpy on their home inspector to find it? Would we decrease the price of the house by the cost of the repair? Could the tentative buyer tryer to use the issue of improper drainage around the ENTIRE house as leverage for a further reduction?

Any advice, opinions would be much appreciated as we feel pretty much in despair about this.....Thanks.

[coolspot]

Call around for quotes, I think you can get a cheaper rate. 260.00 seems steep.

You should disclose the leak if you did not fix it, the only catch is that you may scare away some potential buyers.

So perhaps the best solution is just to get it fixed, but at the cheapest (legitimate) price possible.

[Whitedart]

How would this affect us when we found a buyer? Would we have to disclose the issue or relpy on their home inspector to find it? Would we decrease the price of the house by the cost of the repair? Could the tentative buyer tryer to use the issue of improper drainage around the ENTIRE house as leverage for a further reduction?

Any advice, opinions would be much appreciated as we feel pretty much in despair about this.....Thanks.

I believe in another thread you indicated that you had purchased a resale house.

If you moved into that resale house and found a similar situation that was not disclosed by the vendor, and not found by a typical home inspection as the issue had been covered up, what would you do?
I think I would be contacting my lawyer and suing for the repair cost, as this is not a minor repair.

Best thing you can probably do is disclose this on the spis(?) and price the property accordingly.

[kellya]

We had fixed a water issue in our basement prior to selling our home. It wasn't as extensive as yours but it did involve digging down and replacing the exterior membrane on a section of the foundation. We even had to declare that we had done that fix on our SPIS. We had paperwork to confirm and had used a reputable company who warrantied the work for 35 years so it wasn't an issue - although I imagine it would have been if we hadn't fixed it.

Really though water issues scare people - and if they haven't been repaired that scares people even more. I know if I heard that a house had an water issue that had not been repaired I would not even consider the house.

I would suggest that you get more than one quote. We had four guys come in and the price difference was incredible. Also their methods of fixing the issue differed as well. Personally though I think not fixing you is going to hurt you more financially than not fixing it.

Kelly

[amz155]

I believe in another thread you indicated that you had purchased a resale house.

If you moved into that resale house and found a similar situation that was not disclosed by the vendor, and not found by a typical home inspection as the issue had been covered up, what would you do?
I think I would be contacting my lawyer and suing for the repair cost, as this is not a minor repair.

Best thing you can probably do is disclose this on the spis(?) and price the property accordingly.

We are moving into a new home.

I'm wondering why the issue wasn't found on the home inspection a few years ago when my BF bought the house. I guess it wasn't an issue back then. So technically he DID move into a house with an existing problem and is the one who has to fix it. Does this mean we can contact a lawyer and sue for the repair cost....I don't think so.

[amz155]

We had fixed a water issue in our basement prior to selling our home. It wasn't as extensive as yours but it did involve digging down and replacing the exterior membrane on a section of the foundation. We even had to declare that we had done that fix on our SPIS. We had paperwork to confirm and had used a reputable company who warrantied the work for 35 years so it wasn't an issue - although I imagine it would have been if we hadn't fixed it.

Really though water issues scare people - and if they haven't been repaired that scares people even more. I know if I heard that a house had an water issue that had not been repaired I would not even consider the house.

I would suggest that you get more than one quote. We had four guys come in and the price difference was incredible. Also their methods of fixing the issue differed as well. Personally though I think not fixing you is going to hurt you more financially than not fixing it.

Kelly


Yes I know that water issues are bad news. I'm pissed enough that my BF bought such a crappy house back when he did years ago (I didnt' know him then.) Water issues aside, this house has so many red flags that would have caused me to walk away from it and not even remotely consider buying it.

We will have to discuss with our agent what the better option would be: to just leave it and disclose it or to fix it and disclose it. If we are gonna take a financial hit on it what would be better: pay out of pocket to fix it or take a reduction in sale cost and let the new owners arrange to have it fixed?

Since you mentioned that just a section of foundation was repaired I wonder if maybe we don't have to do the entire wall, like we were quoted. Perhaps just a section would work. Though, since it sounds like we have NO membrane, the only way to put one in would be to do the whole wall...yikes!

What paperwork is used to prove that a company is reputable?

[TrevorK]

It's a nice change to hear that you are either going to disclose and fix it, or disclose it. Often too many people are dishonest about this sort of major repair and will just pass it off to someone else.

I'm not sure if you have shopped around, however I know there are many companies that specialize in foundation work/repair and may be able to give you a better price on the repairs, and perhaps would look a little better to the potential buyer (As to me, Mr Rooter means plumbing and foundation work, such as sealing cracks, isn't plumbing).

[amz155]

Well, we got some better news this morning with someone else that came to give us a quote for the work. He's been in the business 20+ years and specializes in water proofing basements. We're glad we came across his ad in the Brampton paper because he was prety knowledgeable. He laughed when we told him what Mr. Rooter told us.

He diagnosed our issue as having to do with our window well which is not properly installed, and a crack around the window within the window well. He also provided good insight into another one of our window wells that occasionaly leaks.

In the end he provided us written quotes for each window well. Basically he has to dig out the current window well, deepen it, fix the crack in the foundation, seal it and re-install a proper window well. We were quoted $525 per window well.

Does this sound about right?

When we disclose that we had the problem and did the repair, do we provide his written estimate as proof?

What proff do we have to provide that we also fixed the affected drywall? Does this have to be in writing? If we get someone we know to do it and he doesn't write up a receipt/quote, will this be a problem?