Home buyers beware.
For us, the heat in the real estate market is reflected in the lack of due diligence by potential home buyers prior to purchasing properties in our suburban real estate grab.
Yesterday we helped a young couple who just bought their first home in the Ryde district.
They had bought a house that had the bathroom toilet illegally connected to the surcharge gully which was outside the bathroom and near their front door. The gully had a deck built over the top of it to make the front of the house more appealing.
Every time the toilet was flushed the discharge spilled into the gully underneath the deck. Yuk!
After living in the house for only three weeks they started to question the blocked drain symptoms displayed by the toilet. There was also some consternation about the sewerage smell at the front door.
Apparently the young owners had undertaken a pre-purchase building inspection. Somehow the building inspector did not pick up this illegal plumbing connection.
The only advice I can give you is, if you have a friend that’s a plumber don’t get him to look at the property before purchase.
Instead, get a plumber who has plenty of experience in looking at domestic homes, who has an eye for the unusual and is prepared to look a little harder than just scratching the surface.
Any rectification work to the problem we have just uncovered will be expensive. In the $3000-$5000 range.
That is not what these new eager homeowners were expecting.
Leave a Reply