Sellers market, selling house in Portland. Need to repipe. Help!

8 years ago

So my in-laws are trying to sell their house. They found a buyer and negotiated a deal. Afterwards they did the home inspection and there are a couple issues. One is Radon which is being taken care of. The second issue regards piping. I've been told that the entire home needs to be repiped. They want to know if they need to pay for the whole thing or if they can negotiate a half and half payment with the buyer. I've read that its important to inform the buyer there is a piping issue because they could sue after purchasing the home. How much would repiping the home cost? How long would it take? Can they legally negotiate for the buyer to pay half?

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weedyacres

8 years ago

The seller is not required to fix anything or everything found on an inspection. They buyer can ask, and they can negotiate or they can say no. If they say no, the buyer can walk from the deal.

That seems to stretch credulity a bit that a home "must" be re-plumbed. Sounds like an inspector has an opinion, but you want to look at his report and talk to others about whether that's really reasonable. And you (your in-laws) can always just disagree with the inspection and decline to do a re-plumbing.

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Comments (10)

User
8 years ago
The buyer paid for the inspection I assume, so don't they know? Let them tell you what they want. You don't need to offer.
DLM2000-GW
8 years ago
I agree - wait for the request before trying to decide what to offer. But I'm curious - are you talking all water lines within the house? Sewer line exiting the house? Water line coming into the house? And who told you? Who told your in-laws? The buyers agent? The inspector? Or did your in-laws know this going in to the sale?
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kudzu9
8 years ago
What is the basis for the statement that the home needs to be re-piped?
bob_cville
8 years ago
It could be something along the lines of the house has "Qest" polybutylene pipe and the inspectors rule of thumb is that polybutylene pipe has to go, when the truth of it is a little murkier. It is a risk but how much of a risk depends on several factors one of the factors being that some insurers in some locations have decided they won't cover houses with PB piping.

Do check back in and let us know the reason behind the statement that the house must be repiped.
ncrealestateguy
8 years ago
Correct... this is probably the case.
jay06
8 years ago
Could the "re-piping" issue be referring to the electrical wiring? It might be Romex and needs to be enclosed in pipe. Romex doesn't meet building code in my town.
kudzu9
8 years ago
I can't believe that re-piping refers to electrical. Romex is typically not installed in conduit for several reasons, including difficulties in pulling, operating temperature increase when Romex is enclosed, and a different spec for the jacket insulation for wires in conduit. If you are going to put wiring in conduit, it is typically individual wires, not cable, like Romex.

If one were required to convert from Romex to conduit throughout a home, you would have to rip out most of the sheetrock. I can't imagine that an electrical wiring redo would be required by code on a re-sale, and I can't imagine plumbing re-piping would be required by code either. The house could have galvanized piping, which is nearing the end of its useful life, but that would be an issue between the buyer and seller. It would be nice, however, to hear from the OP on what the issue is so the rest of us can quit speculating...
Dustin Knudsen
Original Author
8 years ago
Hi. Sorry for leaving you hanging for so long. My apologies.

"I've been told that the entire home needs to be repiped."

Initially that's what I was told. The problem is that my in-laws are not native to America and they speak broken English. I think that was part of their misunderstanding and hence mine in understanding the situation. I was getting a rough translation through a middle man or two. Here's the truth so far as I understand it:

There are pipes inside the home that are corroded but there are pipes outside the house (but on their property) that have been crushed. My in-laws have never had a problem with water but the inspection basically told them that outside pipes on their property were heavily damaged and needed to be fixed. The whole house does NOT need to be re-piped and that's a relief. There's speculation as to why the pipes outside are crushed, but it doesn't matter anymore. An agreement has been made. They ended up getting a check from the buyer for an extra $5000 to fix the pipes while my in-laws still live there which they are doing now. As a result, they will be moving out at the end of the month instead of, well, today, and the transaction will be complete. As far as the pipes inside the home, I was just relieved that they came to an agreement so I didn't bother asking any more details. I figure it isn't as extensive or problematic as I initially thought. They also found radon in the home but my in-laws went ahead and paid for that and it has been resolved.

I did spend plenty of time reading about piping nightmares, getting myself into a scare (my wife and I are moving contingent upon their moving, so I had a vested interest in their success in selling the home). Now I'm more knowledgeable about what sort of piping conundrums to be aware of should something similar happen in the future.

Thank you SO MUCH for your responses. Again, my apologies for not providing enough information and taking so long to respond. Greatly appreciated all of you.
kudzu9
8 years ago
Dustin-

Thanks for the update. It's frustrating to post and then never know if you helped someone or if they ever got a problem resolved, so I do appreciate you taking the time to explain that complicated story.

Sellers market, selling house in Portland. Need to repipe. Help!

weedyacres

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Sellers market, selling house in Portland. Need to repipe. Help!

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Dustin KnudsenOriginal Author

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