Water Leak Help?

mekiakoo · March 2012

I posted this over on TN under Buying a Home- but thought I could try you ladies too.

We have a split with an addition built in 2009. The house was built in 2005.

We found a water leak in the addition of the house yesterday. It was pouring outside yesterday. The leak is in the lower level and we suspect it is some how coming through the door on the upper level addition (which is straight above the leak). FI removed the trim on the ceiling and found the planks are a bit black (a sign of water). We put 2 bowls underneath it and in about 4 hours it gathered a total of 1/4-1/3 cup of water.

We called our neighbor who inspected it for us and he says he knows for sure the leak is NOT new and the sellers had to know about this beacuse it was in their child's bedroom. The leak is very difficult to miss.

What do we do now? It was not disclosed and we aren't sure what to do at this point. We know we need to get it fixed though- but is there anything else we can do?

ETA: I contacted our inspector to see if he can come back and see if he missed it and see what we can do about this. FI is going to take down the door and see if we can find something between the frames/walls. I've been trying to reach our agent since last night- I think he's avoiding us.

penny12986 · March 2012

I would get an estimate for how much it cost to fix. We rent a house and a similar leak formed during Hurricane Irene last year so the landlord re-shingled the roof and it stopped but now, the ceiling looks like this:

You should take steps to try to fix it soon so that mold doesn't form because mold is a common exclusion on most homeowner's policies.

Does the purchase agreement specify that the home was 'as is'? I would go back to the realtor and see what can be done since it has been less than 2 months. Since you think they are avoiding you, I would go down there in person. You should not be forced to wait. They received a commission from this sale and they owe you the service.

YuMMMy721 · March 2012

As stinky as it is, unless your contract had a warranty in it, the second you signed for the house, any and all problems not reported prior to the sale are your problem. Since it seems like its a newer house then hopefully your contract had a warranty in it! Otherwise really sorry to hear about it, home repairs and problems definitely stink!! Good luck! And keep us posted!!

meggles114 · March 2012

Not much help from me, but definitely agree w/ PP about trying to get the problem corrected ASAP! If it does turn out to be a more serious issue ($$$$) you want to make sure it doesn't get worse and you mitigate your damages in case you do need to file a homeowners claim.

Good luck! The joys of homeowner ship I guess?? Any way... hope you are able to get everything straigtened out!!!

bells24412 · March 2012

I don't own a house, but my brother when he first bought his house we had a massive flood here in RI and it caused water to leak in his basement because the subpump didn't do its job, but like PP's already mentioned once he signed the P&S agreement it was on him. He had to fix the water damage and buy a new subpump. I am sorry I am not of much help, I hope you get the matter resolved!

bmorris0110 · March 2012

I feel your pain! We discovered last Saturday that our bathroom had a water leak into the basemet. We were planning on re-doing our bathroom this summer after the wedding, but the renovation was quickly moved up! By Sunday night we had gutted the entire bathroom down to the studs. We discovered that there were three layers of subfloor and two layers of tile, all of which were soaked right through! There was a ton of rot and the beginnings of mold.

We will have a brand new bathroom by Monday, but it has been a VERY long week. Like you, I wish we could somehow hold the seller responsible (we just bought the house at the end of October). But I guess when we signed the purchase and sale agreement we took all the responsibility. Welcome to homeownership!

Good luck and I hope your repairs are not as big of a nightmare as ours have been!

mekiakoo · March 2012

Wow, bmorris!!!

Our original inspector is coming back on Monday to inspect and see how much the repairs may cost. Our agent said there is a possibility that we can go after the sellers because they did not disclose it and we would have never seen it if it didn't rain. Only after removing the trim, we saw the damage.

This also happened to one of my friends 2 weeks after closing- her kitchen flooded and they discovered the water softener was backed up in the pipes. The sellers knew about the problem therefore they never had the water softener on. It was not until my friend turned it on when the problem was discovered. They wrote a letter to the sellers, threatening to drop everything and move out (apparently they were able to, something in the contract). It worked, the sellers paid for the repairs.

We may have a similar chance. I'm just hoping the inspector will be able to figure out where exactly the leak is coming from and the cost will not be the death of me.

bmorris0110 · April 2012

Good luck with your inspector! Hopefully he can find the problem quickly. It would be nice if you can make the seller pay for it. At this point our bathroom is almost done. Luckily, we have a lot of friends that do carpentry, electrical, etc for a living so we are paying hardly anything for labor. And thank goodness for Home Depot cards!

Good luck!

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