Selling home Oil Tank Problem

[gucci129]

What is the name of your state?NJ
When We bought the House in 1972 the house was heated by Gas. Since then I have put addition on house included with inspection then also had full inspection about 6 yrs after addition. Now 5 yrs later I am selling the house and was otld there is an Oil tank I will need to remove before we close. Worst case scenerio this could cost 30k. best case 5k. I was never informed of this Oil tank. DO I have any rights here? This information was NEVER disclosed to me.

 

[JETX]

"DO I have any rights here?"
*** Probably not. Your purchase was THIRTY-TWO years ago!! Nuff said.

 

[gucci129]

Oil tank

But even though both inspections never found this?

 

[JETX]

Yep. Any allowed SOL has long expired. Plus any process for you to PROVE that the seller knew of the tank is unlikely at this point. It could be possible (likely?) that your seller wasn't aware of the tank either.

 

[nextwife]

Very possible their sellers never knew. Used to be common practice when an owner changed to gas, to merely empty and fill the underground tank with sand and be done with it. The person they bought from may not, at the time, have been required to disclose. Or there could have been owners in between who didn't know.

Not to mention the seller(s) may not even be alive any more by now.

 

[gucci129]

?

Shouldn't the past 2 inspections have found this

 

[JETX]

No. How do you propose an inspector find a disconnected buried tank?? Or even be expected to look for one??

 

[nextwife]

Maybe, maybe not. It is even possible the oil tank preceeded the present structure. I am aware of homes that were built in the 60s and 70s after an old home was razed, and an abandoned tank was found in part of the lot. The builder back then may have simply left it there, no visible connection points. It is possible there was no physical evidence (such as pipes and patches) that this tank even existed.

A home inspector is NOt permitted to dig up all over the yard of a seller's home in case there might be a buried tank. They can't always know.

 

[HomeGuru]

Clearly the writer did not get an environmental hazard inspection and it is unclear if the writer even got a home inspection. It appears that the writer may be talking about a building inspection for code compliance.

 

[gucci129]

Well the buyer had inspection done and they found tank without any digging.

 

[nextwife]

Some technology that is available to inspectors today didn't exist thirty years ago. or was not affordable. Did he use some sort of sensing device?

 

[HomeGuru]

Some technology that is available to inspectors today didn't exist thirty years ago. or was not affordable. Did he use some sort of sensing device?

**A: yes, a dog.

 

[nextwife]

Wow, I'm impressed. My dog can't even find the pesky rabbits that are chompin' the tops off my perennials!

 

[HomeGuru]

And my dog has fleas.

 

[Buzz123]

In 1972 old oil tanks were not recognized as an environmental problem, so it was not something an inspector would have been looking for. Underground storage tank regulations did not come about until the mid 1980's.