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Another of my neighbor's homes looks like it flooded this afternoon...

Industry Observer with Retired

June 25, 2007 06:22 AM

I live in a very nice subdivision in north county San Diego and my next door neighbors are presently away visiting family in Japan. This evening I was heading out to the car to go to dinner and I saw streams of water flowing from my neighbor's house. This morning I met their friend who is doing the exterior watering while they are away. I was able to get her phone number while she stopped to say hello to my dogs. She was pleased we asked as I always keep a watchful eye around the neighborhood anyway. It was just sheer luck that we met today and we were able to reach her prior to going to dinner. After returning home from dinner, I went and looked over the fence and everything was covered with water so I am quite certain that they had a slab leak.

Just two months ago, the neighbor across the street ( a commercial real estate broker and original owner) awakened to sloshing around in water on their fist level. Same thing, a slab leak.

I haven't worked our neighborhood as a REALTOR until just the last few weeks. I venture to say that not many of those who have purchased here including myself were ever told about the real possibility of slab leak occurrences and it appears it has happened to nearly 50% of the residents here. The damage of a flood and cracked slab from pipes under the slab really bothers me.

About 3 years ago, I was called by a couple who live in an adjoining subdivision who informed me that they were going to be selling their home and they were looking to select a Realtor. They have plastic plumbing in their subdivision. I mentioned it and said it had to be disclosed. They took issue with that and said they were never told when they bought and that I was making a big deal about it since it was not leaking and never leaked. A day before my meeting to sign the paper work, they called and said they were going to list their home with a dear friend's son who was in the business and they just had to list with him. Their listing was overpriced and after the first six months it expired and it expired again. I have no idea if the plumbing issue was disclosed but in the end I am glad the listing went elsewhere. That is when I thought it best to just leave this community to others to list and sell.

I did an ActiveRain post about the one exception I just made and the seller got a call and sold it before they could sign the listing. Stuff happens.

Meanwhile, I still have the fear that my pipes will break next. It's an $8500/$10,000 pre-fix for re-routing the piping from the hot water heater. I have been contemplating about it and to do the pre-fix before a problem or sell and disclose that I have just been lucky to this point. Some action is needed and soon it appears.

I haven't heard of anyone's particular disclosures but I was at a neighbors house not long ago and she was having the plastic plumbing changed. Several neighbors were there as she was encouraging everyone to consider the issues. Another neighbor that recently purchased said she was an attorney this was the first she heard of all this. I asked her if she was sure that nothing was disclosed . Nope, nothing disclosed to her about slab leaks or plumbing issues. Fortunately, I stayed out of the conversation while the neighbors all discussed it. I have a mind that she will be looking into some things ?? It is about time we all got to the bottom of all this. The homes are 6 years past the 10 year warranty period and the builder went out of business.

There is no recourse against an out of business builder ( there had been a lawsuit against him when they were new and the original owners made an undisclosed settlement-but I have no idea what it was for, other than rumors of a poor roofing job on a number of the homes.) but home after home has been sold here and someone should have known something? But for all the plumbing issues, it is a beautiful community visually.

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Lenn Harley

Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, MD & VA Homes and Real Estate - Leesburg, VA

Real Estate Broker - Virginia & Maryland

Got to say that if it were my home, I'd make the repairs asap. If nothing else to avoid the damage. Certainly not something I'd want on my C.L.U.E. report for that house.

Then I'd track the build down, tie him up, tie him to a post in the town center and have folks throw tomatoes at him.

Jun 25, 2007 06:34 AM

William Johnson

Retired - La Jolla, CA

Retired

The sad thing is that the insurance companies will pay for the damage but not fix the problem. Here is some logic that is really hard to get. The cost of the fix is about $10,000 The repairs to the property about in or around the $30,000 range, flooring ,walls, damage to personal property, etc. If the fix were encouraged by the insurance companies, say, 50% costing the homeowner about $5000, the insurance would save aver $25,000 for each one that this has happened to.

I think what really get my nap up is that with all the so called real estate specialists that list and market around here, no one seems to have heard about this - at least to the point of disclosing it to anyone. Something is very wrong in this picture. How about the work that was done already. The new folks don't seem to know about, though I certainly haven't polled them all. If I did being a REALTOR, it might be taken that I had ulterior motives, so I have to stay away form discussing except with immediate neighbors that are friends.

The same thing happened with all our furnaces. They had the x-rods and were on recall, though not one knew anything about it. When I purchased, I discovered we had the bad furnace and the firewall already had cracks and burn marks. I didn't discover untill after close. No one is covering them now but then they could be replaced by Home Warranty Companies. I was lucky.

How is it that some many in the business that market around here don't know anything. If I didn't know better it would feel a bit like the example of the Stepford wives,lol.

I am deciding on pre-fix prior to likely up coming problems.

Jun 25, 2007 07:25 AM

Dale Baker

Baker Energy Audits and Commercial Properties Inspections - Claremont, NH

New Hampshire Relocation Real Estate Information

Howdy William

Would like to geve you my congrats for a very good post. You did the right thing tell them they would need to be disclosed.

Jun 28, 2007 10:14 AM

William Johnson

Retired - La Jolla, CA

Retired

Hi Dale, Thank You so much. I went over to neighbors tonight and it remained closed up for 5 days until the owners returned. Wow, the water soaked through the walls, everything on first level was destroyed. The mold was covering everything. The destruction crew is there tonight ripping the place apart. So sad. I spoke to another neighbor tonight that was watching all this and she said I should send all the neighbors a notice that I am taking over. The REAL Estate agents that have worked here have not told anyone about the issue. If they specialize here , certainly they would see the trucks that come around and have to move people out and the clean up crews that it takes to remove the walls and the flooring. She was so steamed. She said that brings to about 7 this year already,Who's next/. I told that it is well over half the homes in the subdivision now , so soon they will all be fixed and the REALTORS that suck up the fees can can back and make they still never heard of of the problem, just the fix. Amazing! Thanks for your great note.

Jun 29, 2007 04:08 PM

Tracey Thomas

BrokerInTrust Real Estate - Calabasas, CA

CA Real Estate Broker

I'm from the East Coast where we have basements so I wasn't familiar with a slab foundation when I moved to SoCal 8 years ago. I walked out on my patio one evening and it was covered with water, then put my foot on the grass and it was soaked too. I called a plumber and he took one look at the back yard and said "slab leak". The leak detection company was called in and they determined that there was a pin hole leak in the hot water pipe under my kitchen floor. What a mess! The water flowed under the wood floors and out to the back of the house. It damaged my cabinets, floors, walls and my house was torn up for months. They had to jack hammer through the cement in my kitchen floor to fix the leak in the pipe.

My neighbors seeing the trucks in front of my house were all to familiar with this disaster as most of them had similar problems too. I looked on my TDS and the seller did disclose that they had actually had a pinhole leak in the family room floor next to the kitchen. Luckily I had the name of an independent insurance adjuster who worked for me and arranged to have everything paid for by my insurance company, but you're right, they wouldn't pay for a re-pipe or to do the epoxy coating on the inside of the pipes to prevent future leaks.

This is a huge problem in Southern CA and as the homes built in the 90's age, we'll see more and more of this problem.

Jul 15, 2007 03:52 PM

William Johnson

Retired - La Jolla, CA

Retired

Hi Tracey,

Sorry to hear and you are so right. The process they use is laying the copper pie on a bed of gravel under the slab. When the pipe heats up, it vibrated and will actually wear a hope in the pipe. The pin hole that allows the water through, is under such pressure that it acts like a dull knife in cheese. eventually it fins t was through and the added pressure cracks the slab to allows the water to perk through.

That is at least what happened in my first home. We had to re-route the lines out from under the slab. Next time I buy a home, I will go to door to discover if this issue was prevalent in the neighborhood. Thanks for edifying my post.

BTW, the home was closed up ( Owners were on vacation with family in Japan) and the damage was horrific and the mold abatement is on going at present. I feel terrible for the neighbors. Everything including the drywall is being removed. But they have to abate the mold first before the materials will be allowed to be removed from the house. I hadn't heard of that but after being closed up with the water inside, I can imagine how bad it got.

Jul 15, 2007 04:31 PM