Ixnay on the OuseHay : Terminated by Termites
Posted on August 23, 2003 at 9:43 am | No Comments
Whew, that was a close one.
As excited as we were about our potential new home, we’re breathing a huge sigh of relief this morning after the ace house inspector we hired uncovered a termite problem that the sellers ‘neglected’ to inform us about. They knew about it, even had it treated in the past, but didn’t feel they needed to bring us into the loop. Even went so far as to claim they weren’t “legally” obligated to tell us (which they were). I guess they didn’t struggle with any personal “moral” compulsions, either.
The inspector poked one of the main basement beams with a large screwdriver, then showed us how it literally just sunk into the wood. He kept poking, and it got worse. Without getting into some of the walls, there’s no way to tell how extensive the damage is.
They weren’t willing to budge on paying for any further costs to assess the damage, or for any of the other problems revealed (like the rotting front porch roof and upper deck or the leaky sewage pipe in the basement). Apparantly that’s unheard of… there’s always some post-inspection negotiating room, unless the seller advertises the house for sale “as is.” So now the place is just too much of a risk for us… it could be a soul-sucking money pit that crumbles beneath us in a couple years. We have to walk away, keep looking, hope for a better place and more honest sellers.
Disappointed? Sure. Feeling lucky? You betcha. And I think Amie’s going to make me get a dog anyway.
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