A
april59
Guest
Hi New York here. I'm in contract to purchase a two-story home in Chincoteague, VA that has a grandfathered in cesspool, but I opted not to have a survey done. There were 3 contingency clauses that gave me a right to back out of this contract. 1) Home inpsection: I paid for this and the inspector who also has an engineers background found a few things wrong but didn't think the repairs could cost more than $3,000. I haven't gotten contractor estimates on these repairs yet, but since he thought the house itself was in sound and good condition inside and out, I waived this contingency and told the buyers realtors that I'm going through with the purchase as long as the termite and cesspool inspections turned out good (these are the other two contingencies). 2) The sellers paid for the termite inspection--this inspection came out good (no active termites) I was still intending on buying this home. 3) While I was waiting for the cesspool inspection, I decided to find out how does one go about upgrading to a septic system. I called the local building codes enforcement superintendent. He asked the square footage on the house (1000 sq ft), vs the property (1300). He thought I read the numbers wrong then informed me that to have a septic system in place I'd need at least 800 square feet (1300 from 1000 leaves 300 sq. feet), and that didn't include the addition 400 sq ft for the perculator! He then gave me the name to the Environmental Superindendent. He tells me because I don't have the additional square footage for a replacement septic system, that once the cesspool fails, and it will eventually fail there are no choices. He comes in and decrees the house unlivable condemning the house! So I could lose this property if the cesspool fails. In hearing this I called the sellers realtors on June 5th and inform them that I no wanted to purchase this home due to this information. The seller isn't please with my action, and seems to be heading toward forcing me to buy the house instead of taking my good faith money and finding another buyer. My objective of this home was to use it for my week or two vacation, and set it up with a Vacation Management Rental company which the Environmental Superindentent suggested I shouldn't do--"all it would take is one wrong thing down the cesspool". My lawyer is waiting to see if the seller calms down and takes the money, or strong arms me into buying the house because I'm trying to break the contract. One step at a time he says because we really don't know how aggressive the seller will be. Anyone have any ideas, or know any loopholes to get out of this if I am going to be forced to buy this property? Thank you for your help.