Basement Leak a Deal Breaker?
My husband and I have been negotiating for several months now to go into contract on a brownstone. Communication with the seller has been very difficult; it’s like playing the telephone game – whatever we have to say to him goes through either two lawyers or two brokers. The latest issue holding up contract signing…
My husband and I have been negotiating for several months now to go into contract on a brownstone. Communication with the seller has been very difficult; it’s like playing the telephone game – whatever we have to say to him goes through either two lawyers or two brokers. The latest issue holding up contract signing is a basement leak. When we first saw the house, there was a small trickle in the corner. A week later there was a large leak of what appeared to be clean water (not sewage) coming from the same corner, and there had been no rain that week. The owner is willing to fix the leak if it is from his property, but wants no responsibility if the leak is from outside his property, and he wants us to go into contract saying as much. However, he’s dragging his feet finding out where the leak is coming from, and is urging us to sign the contract without knowing the source of the leak, which of course we don’t want to do. This all leads me to believe that he knows the source is from outside his property. And while the building does need a complete gut renovation, and the leak would probably be a small part of the overall work, we still want to know what we’re getting into.
So my question is, how to proceed? Interest rates are rising, the price of our condo (which we’ll be selling) is falling, and I’m beginning to think that we should just eat what we’ve spent already (inspection costs and lawyer fees) and walk away. On the other hand, there’s nothing else out there that I want. I like this house and this location. Just how big a deal could this leak be? Has anyone heard of a basement leak costing more than, say, $20K to fix?
I don’t know if this will help, but I too had a leak in the corner of my basement in a brick building I owned . After a lot of observaton in and out of the building, I discovered a gap near the brick foundation outside. I went to home depot and bought a bag of quick cement, mixed it up and poured it into the gap. Turns out one bag wasnt enough, and then I had to do it again and finally the cement started coming to the surface where I was pouring. It fixed the problem, no more leaks. I did go around the rest of the building’s foundation and filled up a lot more openings.
I agree %100 with Anon at 7:24 AM.
my neighbor’s pipe caused a leak in my house (and flooded my basement.) It costs me $2500 to fix.
Basement leaks are part of owning a house. The only question is if you want to make an adjustment on the price of the house considering this information.
If you like the house, buy it. I can’t tell you how many places we looked at where the repairs made us think we were crazy to buy and we watched it get snapped up by someone who knew that everything can get fixed. This is part of the process of getting your head around buying someplace that isn’t perfect. If you’re the kind of person who needs to buy “new”, then go do that. Otherwise welcome to the wonderful world of renovations, contractors, city agencies, bank loans, and fantastic and fulfilling creativity.
Is the leak in the front or the back of the house?
If the front, it could be water from your main. Replacing that is about 3k.
Another possibilty it “ground water” (basically rain water that collects under ground). Abating that involves installing a drain under the cement floor, and connecting that to a sump pump. That would be 5k tops.
One thing you could do is talk to the neighbors on both sides, and see if they have any issues with water in their basement.
All in all, sounds like a relatively minor issue.
Sounds like a pretty minor issue to me. Fifteen years from now, you may be saying to yourself “man I’m glad we bought this place” or “man I can’t believe we were dumb enough to buy this place” or “man I wish we had bought that place” but you’re not gonna be saying “if it weren’t for that leak I’d be psyched I bought the place.”
YOUR BEST BET IS TO HIRE A PLUMBER OR 2 AND LET THEM INSPECT IT AND TELL YOU WHERE IT IS COMING FROM. YOU MIGHT BE WALKING AWAY FROM SOMETHING YOU MIGHT REGREAT LATER ON.
Tough situation, but why not call your own plumber in for a diagnostic and peace of mind? My basement sprung a leak a couple of days after I bought the place, which the sellers were gracious enough to pay to repair. It was just a rusty valve that had to be replaced – $200.