New House with Septic Issues and We Think the Sellers Knew - What Do We Do?

Short version: We recently bought a house and almost immediately began having septic issues. We have reason to believe the sellers knew there were problems and did not disclose. We want to know if it is worth taking legal action or if we should just eat the costs and move on.

Long version: We recently bought a home. We went under contract for the home in the beginning of May, closed at the end of June and moved in early July. Days after moving in, we had water flooding our basement and we could not figure out why. Over the course of a week, this happened three times and we finally saw the water was backing up from a drain on our basement floor. It was also identified that the water backup seemed to coincide with the water softener cycling, so we unplugged the water softener. I started making some calls to try and figure out what the issue was. When we bought the house, the sellers said they had recently had the septic tank pumped. They left some receipts among other paperwork for us in the house. One was for the septic pump and another was for a sewer cleaning company which had come out the day before the septic tank was pumped. On the receipt it was written that the tech had camera'ed the line and determined the tank was full. This was done about a week before the house was listed for sale.

I called the sewer cleaner and they came out, camera'd the line again and said the tank was full. It has been less than 3 months since the tank had been pumped. The tech suspected that perhaps our drainfield had failed and recommended I call a drainfield repair company. I called the drainfield repair company next. Tech came out and dug several holes in the area of our drainfield and could not find any water. They also had all of the records of our septic system which they had gotten from the county health department which they shared with me. They suspected that perhaps something was wrong with the outlet pipes from the tank to the drainfield. They recommended I call an excavating company which also does septic installs/replacements. The excavating company came out and did an exploratory dig, they looked at the septic tank, they ended up cutting into several of the outlet pipes, everything is clogged with the gross stuff in your septic tank that is not supposed to go out into your drainfield. The pipes are newer than the rest of the system, suggesting that they have tried to repair this problem before. However, there are other issues. The septic tank is too small for the size of the house (we have an 800 gallon tank for a 4 bedroom home), the baffle in the tank is too low, which is why the bad stuff was able to go out towards the drainfield. Summary at this point: the septic system and drainfield all need to be replaced. This costs about $15,000. We've gotten a permit from the county and are moving forward with the work. However, having just bought a new home, we don't really have an extra $15,000 to spare. We have some indicators that the sellers knew there was an issue and nothing of the sort was disclosed on their seller's disclosure.

Here's the information that I have gathered which I believe would be helpful if we are going to attempt legal action:

-The current septic and drainfield were installed in 1991. The owner at that time was advised to get a larger tank (actually two tanks) and requested and received a variance to only install one. (Info from the county health department records on our septic system)

-When the sellers bought the house 20 years ago, they had a septic inspection. They were told they tank was too small for the house and they should get an auxiliary tank and also that the water softener should not be backwashing into the septic and they needed to re-route it (it is actually against code here for your water softener to backwash into your septic). In 20 years, neither of these issues were addressed. (Info from the county health department records on our septic system)

-There was a gas range in the basement, which we moved out shortly after buying the house but before we noticed water coming up. We found water marks on the cabinets next to it and a wet towel rolled up behind it. There are also watermarks along the drywall. This, along with the fact they had a sewer cleaner come out indicates to us that they knew they had water in the basement. This should have been on the seller's disclosure. Even if the issue is repaired, you still have to disclose if you had water in your basement and why and what was done.

-The septic pumping company sent me their pump records for the last 10 years. They were on a consistent 3 year pump schedule, which was what the company had recommended. The tank was pumped in the spring of the following years: 2012, 2015, 2018, and 2021. To have someone come out a year later in 2022 and pump the tank again is not normal. The sewer cleaner records show that they had the tank pumped because they were told it was full. The septic pumping card indicates that they pumped the full amount from the tank. There was nothing marked on the seller's disclosure about septic issues.

Some other notes:

-We did not have any inspections. This was pretty normal if you were trying to buy a house in this market in May. At the time our agent told us that the reason we got this house over the other offer they were considering is that those people wanted a septic inspection. The excavating company said that an inspection would not have uncovered this issue even if we had one.

-We have shared all this information with our real estate agent. She reached out to the seller's agent with our issues and information and they responded that they did not believe there was any cause for a dispute.

We've been told that successfully proving in court that a seller knowingly lied on the disclosure is difficult. We do not want to waste more time and money if there is little chance of success. We were also wondering if there was some way to reach out to the sellers and see if they would be willing to come to an agreement with us without going to court and what is the best way to go about that.

TIA for any advice you can give us.

Submitted August 12, 2022 at 06:19AM by No_Can_7155 https://ift.tt/nzyLM9t