<p>Well, it’s the seller’s problem, thank goodness. They can decide if they want to get their own inspection, but our inspector is very well regarded and I don’t think they’ll get a different result.</p>
<p>My goodness – this house, beautiful though it is, has a lot of stuff that needs fixing. We were impressed with the complete painting, inside and out, and the beautifully redone hardwood floors.</p>
<p>Well, that’s why God invented inspectors.</p>
<p>Are you going to walk away if the seller won’t mitigate it?</p>
<p>Talk to my husband. He says that MOST houses in CT probably have radon issues. MOST. If the basement or crawl spaces have been closed up for a while, that just makes it all the worse. A good friend just had a radon “whats it” put in the basement of her house that is also for sale. It cost about $1200. She didn’t HAVE to do this (she told me this was NOT required…did your agent tell you the owners HAD to deal with the radon issue?)…not required. BUT she felt that having the system in would be a selling point and would also take it off of the list of potential reasons for buyers NOT to buy.</p>
<p>notrichenough, I don’t know. Haven’t discussed that possibility with DH. The reality is that the seller has to deal with it whether we buy the house or someone else buys the house.</p>
<p>Thumper, when our current house was inspected, we didn’t have a radon issue.</p>
<p>Edited to add: When we engaged our inspector, they asked if we wanted to have the water tested for lead. They indicated lead in the water is only a health problem for growing children. Since we don’t have any of those, we said no. I’ve changed my mind, given the multitude of things that have been found. In addition, it occurs to me that if there is a problem, I’d rather have these sellers have to fix it, than us when we try to sell the house in a few years.</p>
<p>My husband says that radon can be an issue…but it is VERY VERY common in CT. You are fortunate that your current house doesn’t have this as an issue. </p>
<p>DH says that there are folks who will walk away from a house with elevated radon levels, but the mitigation cost of about $1200 would take care of the issue. </p>
<p>There is no law that says the sellers need to fix this in CT. This is between you and the sellers. The mitigation is ventilation. I’m just not sure this radon mitigation is required of your sellers. It’s not like the dishwasher (which does need to be operating if built into the house) or the furnace.</p>
<p>Hmmmm. It’s not a law??</p>
<p>I got the inspector’s radon report first thing this morning and told my realtor that clearly it needs to be mitigated.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard a peep from anyone about it, so I assume it’s going to be fixed. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.</p>
<p>When we sold our last house in CT, the buyer’s inspector installed some kind of digital radon detector in our living room and informed me that I needed to keep all of the doors and windows closed for days. In late June. I said the hell with that to myself and carried on as usual with open windows. </p>
<p>I mean, this house was built in 1790 and had a hand dug basement with stone walls. It had the original windows, and the original “insulation”: probably long-decayed corncobs in the walls. It leaked like a sieve. There was no way there way a radon problem. That happens in modern houses that are sealed up tight like a drum. Generally, all you need to mitigate a radon problem is basement ventilation. There can also be an issue with radon in the water that is released when showering. I am skeptical about the level at which it really needs to be dealt with, though. </p>
<p>Since no one is living in the house, there isn’t even the normal exchange of air with the outdoors. WIth a reading that low I would want to find out whether it would have been under the threshold if there had simply been people opening and closing the doors.</p>
<p>There has not, to my knowledge, been a SINGLE documented case of asbestiolitis from domestic exposure, yet millions have been made out of elaborate asbestos abatement procedures.</p>
<p>You will need to verify this yourself. I do not believe there is a law requiring mitigation for radon in this state. IF the owner knew, he needed to disclose. However, MOST people do not get radon testing done so it is unlikely that they knew. The house has Been closed up with no one opening or closing the basement area. Radon is a naturally occurring gas that collects in unventilated spaces. It is very common in New England. The first solution is to open the house up and ventilate. Then retest. If the radon level doesn’t go down, then you install the ventilation system to continuously move air through the space. </p>
<p>It’s sort of similar to lead paint in houses. Owners are not required to mitigate that either. They are required to disclose IF they know of it. Same with PCB’s in window caulk and asbestos in old roofing shingles or siding. Disclosure required but remediation not.</p>
<p>I think the one I would worry about least is radon.</p>
<p>I agree completely with the last two posts. Radon is a very common problem in the northeast. A reading of 5.8 in a house that has been closed up is really barely elevated and may very well be remediated with the normal ventilation of an occupied house. Weather conditions (rain, wind) during the test days can also skew results higher. I’ve read that any houses with readings between 4-8 should always retest before considering any mitigation systems. </p>
<p>Our house had been unoccupied before we bought it and the walkout basement reading was 33.1, top floor was 7.4. We wanted to finish the basement and did have a mitigation system installed-under $1500. The presence of radon would not be a deal breaker for us.</p>
<p>I remember when we sold our old house the real estate agent handed me the lead paint “I don’t know nuthin” form, and I said I wasn’t signing it. She was very surprised, but we’d had the whole house tested and knew that for a house its age it had almost no lead paint at all. The previous owners had stripped the downstairs windows and removed all the exterior plaster to insulate. We’d gutted the kitchen. Upstairs we’d stripped the children’s room. So there were only a few interior walls and a few windows that really needed to be done.</p>
<p>When we bought this ouse, the owners form stated that they “didn’t know” about the presence of asbestos. Of course, you could walk into the cellar and LOOK at decaying asbestos insulation on pipes. They also said they “didn’t know” about lead paint. Of course, the house was rebuilt in 1913. </p>
<p>I came to the conclusion that they were simply liars. I don’t think anyone is fooled by the “don’t knows.” Of course, if we were to sell this house I suppose I could say that I “didn’t know” about lead paint, since I have repainted the interior with modern paint, but really…</p>
<p>You can’t conclusively determine whether something is asbestos without a lab test. There are other forms of insulation that look a lot like it.</p>
<p>Same with lead paint. I own a number of buildings that were built around 1900, and have had lead paint tests done in some of them. It always surprises me where the lead paint is or is not.</p>
<p>So unless you actually do the tests, you can’t definitely say one way or the other, so “don’t know” is legitimate. You might “strongly suspect” or “think it is almost certainly”, but without the test you don’t know.</p>
<p>Anyone walking into a building of that age has to know the likelihood is very high, regardless of what the owners say, but without the test, you just don’t know for sure.</p>
<p>Just for the record…VH, I do hope that the sellers will decide to fix the things you have found are problems. They may decide that fixing with a sure buyer is better than not fixing but having to disclose for future potential buyers (if they don’t make it right for you and you decide not to buy).</p>
<p>I really do hope it works out as there was much that you did like about this house.</p>
<p>I suspect they’ll fix these things. </p>
<p>On another note – my buyers’ mortgage contingency expires this Friday. If they have a mortgage by then, we’re on. If they don’t have a mortgage by then, they might ask for an extension of the contingency. It they don’t have a mortgage by then and they don’t ask for an extension, we’re still on.</p>
<p>VH, when will you hear what the sellers of the new house are willing to do? Wasn’t your moving date sometime in October!?</p>
<p>If you want to talk about cutting it close-- we were supposed to be closing in six days and are still waiting to hear the results of our appraisal. Apparently it took place last Friday and the bank said they were hopeful we’d hear by Monday, but it is now Wednesday and still nothing. I don’t know what happens at this point! The appraisal apparently took three weeks to schedule because they couldn’t get a hold of the seller’s agent… </p>
<p>VH, it sounds to me like the things on your list are things any buyer would want fixed. I am hopeful that your sellers will have the attitude that it’s better to fix it now than to have to start all over just to fix it for someone else later anyway.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m not particularly worried.</p>
<p>Thumper, the closing on our current house is scheduled for Friday, 10/19. I wouldn’t mind moving it up, but let’s wait and see if our buyers get their mortgage. (Details, details.)</p>
<p>As far as our purchase is concerned, we’ve tentatively said Monday, 10/22, but I’m concerned that even if we get the $$$ for our current house on the previous Friday, it somehow won’t be “available” to wire to the seller. You know how banks and wire transfers and all that stuff can go . . . In any event, our movers are coming on Wednesday, 10/17, and we’re hoping to be able to rent the new house prior to the actual closing. It’s currently vacant. Our realtor has said she doesn’t want to raise the possibility of our renting yet; she wants to make sure the seller fixes what they’re supposed to fix first.</p>
<p>Ema, good luck closing on time. That sounds unlikely, hope it’s not critical to close right on the day. That sounds like plenty of negligence going on. First, by the seller’s realtor to be out of contact (that is, if it is his/her fault). And negligence by the appraisal company to not contact the realtor’s managing broker, or merely just the sellers to get into the house. Also negligence by your agent to not make it happen. Wonder if the appraisal company was just busy and blowing this off. Not really sure why they’d have to contact the seller’s agent in the first place, just the seller to notify them when they are doing the appraisal.</p>
<p>Well, I was just about to post telling the whole story, but we just got the call and the house did appraise. So that is good, because we had indication that re-negotiating would have gotten very messy and we could have lost the house.</p>
<p>Apparently now we have a problem though because I wrote BF a check for our earnest money, he deposited it into his account and wrote his own check, and the bank is upset about not being able to “source” the money. I don’t really understand. Our realtor said that would be fine so we didn’t know. I’ve lived with him for a year and I have been putting money away for the closing costs instead of contributing to the rent, it seems like it’s his money fair and square to me but I guess maybe it doesn’t work that way…</p>
<p>Great that you did get the appraisal, what a relief!</p>
<p>I know the money thing seems weird, but it is common. They want to follow the money trail to make sure people aren’t getting loans from people or borrowing from their credit cards. But it seems like your reasoning should be good, and that you should just be able to show them you had the money in your account, and gave the check to him. If you will both be on the deed, shouldn’t matter who the money came from, but they’ll probably need explanations or bank statements on this.</p>
<p>When we bought the house that we now live in six years ago, we went through so much paperwork torture. Not only did we have to show every little thing, even FIVE days after closing, the lender was checking on what was reflecting in our bank account. Never had that happen before. Can’t imagine what they could have done if they didn’t like it.</p>