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When to negotiate repairs with sellers

Q. We offered full price on a home and hired a home inspector. The main issue in his report was rust and corrosion in the forced air furnace. A heating contractor confirmed that the burner chambers are badly rusted and advised replacement of the furnace. We want the sellers to pay for this, but our Realtor says we should have the home appraised before requesting repairs. We don't want to incur additional costs before we know who is going to pay for the new furnace. What do you think we should do?

A. It's hard to understand why an appraisal would have anything to do with repair negotiations. The purpose of the appraisal is to determine the market value of the property. The outcome of the appraisal would only be significant if it did not support the price you are paying for the property. That should have no bearing on whether the seller agrees to replace a deteriorated furnace.

Another consideration is the time limit on your contingency period. Most purchase contracts specify a number of days to submit repair requests pursuant to a home inspection. Waiting for the appraisal could allow that deadline to expire. After that, it would be an as-is purchase.

Your Realtor may not be giving the best advice. If the furnace needs replacement and you don't want to pay for it, now is probably the best time to submit your request to the sellers.

Q. When we bought our home, we had a good home inspection, but a very substandard septic inspection. The report said the septic was OK, but a few months after moving in, our toilet overflowed onto the bathroom floor. It was determined that the septic system was defective and needed to be replaced. We called the septic inspector and asked how they could have passed the system. We were told that they flushed the toilets, and since the water went down, the septic system passed. The neighbors said that the sellers used to have the tank pumped at least once a year. They disclosed that the septic was only two years old, but this was obviously not true. Do we have any recourse? Lisa

A. The sellers are clearly in violation of state disclosure laws and should be held accountable. Hopefully, their disclosure regarding a two year old septic system was in writing.

As for the septic company, there is no excuse for flushing the toilets and calling that a septic inspection. That is clearly a case of professional negligence. Anyone in the septic business knows that a septic system cannot be evaluated without excavating and pumping the tank. The sellers and the septic contractor both need to be put on notice that this circumstance is not acceptable. If they don't take the matter seriously, notification from an attorney may be more convincing. You should also report the septic contractor to the licensing agency in your state.

• To write to Barry Stone, visit him on the web at www.housedetective.com, or write AMG, 1776 Jami Lee Court, Suite 218, San Luis Obispo, CA 94301.

© 2015, Action Coast Publishing

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