Two Issues after home purchase

[HomeVa]

What is the name of your state? Virginia

We bought our house a couple of years ago. But two distinct issues arose before and after construction of our new garage this past summer which I found very disturbing.

The first issue came while purchasing the house. We were told that we didn’t have to get a mortgage survey by our lender, because it was an older established neighborhood. Over a year later, when we began construction of our garage, we did have a survey done. It turns out that one corner of the existing 40+ year old house was a little over a foot over the front setback, necessitating a variance which delayed the construction of my garage by about five months and cost over a thousand more dollars in extra expenses.

After construction completed on our garage we noticed water building up in the back yard. We thought that perhaps something happened during construction that severed the sewer line. After some investigating we discovered that we were not connected to the county sewer lines at all, but have a SEPTIC TANK. We were then were forced to connect to county sewer because the septic tank had numerous problems. At the time when we bought the house we were presented by the realtor with a list of average prices for utilities that was made up by the owner. One of these was WATER & SEWER, with associated average monthly prices. This and the monthly bill we received by our locality with a line item sewer were all that we needed to believe that we were connected to the county sewer. Of course we were wrong.

I believe we did our due diligence on this house. We went over everything and we hired a lawyer and a home inspector. I know that a house has certain expenses and believe me we have shared quite a few but these expenses, in my mind, were caused by information being willfully withheld and possibly even shear deceit and I do not believe that I should have to swallow these costs.

I would appreciate any advice on this issue and I am specifically wondering if I have cause to move forward with legal action.

[justalayman]

I believe we did our due diligence on this house. We went over everything and we hired a lawyer and a home inspector. I know that a house has certain expenses and believe me we have shared quite a few but these expenses, in my mind, were caused by information being willfully withheld and possibly even shear deceit and I do not believe that I should have to swallow these costs.

well, to the survey issue, you failed in your due diligence. A mortgage survey is only for the benefit of the lender. If you wanted a survey (and not simply a mortgage survey which may not have shown the problem you ancountered), you could have (and should have) had one performed at your request.

To the sewer; deceit? Maybe. Mistake? maybe. If the local authority was billing you for sewer use, maybe the old owner was also under the understanding they were connected to the municipal sewer. Try calling them or the selling agent and asking. You may be jumping to conclusions that are not warranted.

In many municipalities, sewer and water are billed together since sewer billing may be dependant upon water usage. It could be a simple mistake or misunderstanding.

Obviously there is a problem but your situation warrants more investigation before condemning the old owner.

[mwbarton]

Can you prove that the previous owners knew about these items? If you can't prove it, then you likely don't have any legal recourse.

The sewer portion of my water bill is based on my water consumption. I would assume that yours is the same so you may want to approach the county about reimbursement for the sewer portion of your water bill from the time you purchased your home until you were connected to the county sewer. It won't be enough to pay for your expenses, but a little is better than nothing.

[FlyingRon]

As others have pointed out this is your own fault. Barring the fact that the sellers knew of the set back issue or MISREPRESENTED the fact that the house was on private septic, you've got no action.

A house location plat typically used for mortgages is there primarily to show the house isn't over the boundaries. I've got a few for several properties and NONE show setbacks. That's not a valuation issue that lenders worry about. I do have a variance plat from when I did have to get a variance (for constructing a screened porch) and that does show the setbacks (notably because they were the issue in the variance).

The list of utility bills is hardly diligence as to whether a private septic system exists. Usually the listing disclosures covers sewer and water issues separately.

[HomeVa]

I doubt if I could get either party to admit that they knew about either one of these issues, even if they did know. So as it stands now the consensus is that due diligence was not taken by me in either instance?

One issue concerning the septic tank. Many Va localities, including mine, stipulate the the seller must inform the buyer (by way of a receipt I believe), the last time in the past 5 years that a septic tank (if installed) was cleaned. No such receipt was ever presented to me so I was not tipped off to the fact that there was a septic tank.

[justalayman]

Well, I would defintaley say so on the survey issue but on the septic system I withold judgement due to the lack of specific info available here.

[FarmerJ]

Home your city should have a record called a TAP CARD showing the date the home was connected to city water , they should also have a record of when sewer was connected via another tap card
ask them for the information.