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Best week of house hunting ended with a total nightmare inspection

Last Tuesday we found a perfect 3-bedroom near downtown Portland, got the offer accepted, and then the inspection on Friday found a massive underground oil tank nobody knew about. $15,000 to remove it, seller won't budge. Has anyone else dealt with surprise underground tanks and how did you handle it?
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2 Comments
wren_jackson
Honestly, I kinda see it from the seller's side here. Underground tanks are a nightmare, but if they didn't know about it, you can't really expect them to just fork over $15k. Maybe they're tapped out from the sale already. I'd try meeting in the middle - like offer to split the removal cost, or ask for a credit at closing instead of cash. A lot of banks will let you finance remediation into the mortgage anyway. It's a bummer but walking away over a fixable problem might make you regret it when the next house has something worse.
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christopher903
Man that sucks, hopefully the seller caves after you threaten to walk.
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