Home Inspector problems

[Tug]

I recently purchased a town house in the Denver area and hired a home agent that my real estate agent suggested. A week after I closed I decided to go down into the crawl space and noticed both the north and south ends were wet. I contacted both the Inspector and my Real Estate Agent and they both said to contact the HOA which I have done.

The HOA sent their maintenance man in and he attributed the moisture to ground water and said a sump pump might have to be installed. Because the crawl space had such strong musty odor the maintenance man requested a mold remediater be sent over to check for mold.

With in a matter of a few minutes not only found a 2 foot section of sewage pipe that had rotted through but found that 30% of the crawl space had mold which was treated.

After the crawl space was treated I was still getting light headed so I crawled into the crawl space and found a 3 foot horizontal crack in the foundation. I called the HOA again and they sent over the same maintenance man after further investigation it was determined that one of the main sewage pipes that was located on the other side of the foundation was also leaking and would have to be dug up and replaced at the cost of approximately $7500 which the HOA is going to pay for.

Because I have no place else to stay Im forced to live in a townhouse that I am constantly lightheaded and Im not sure how much longer I'll be able to live here if my health continues to get worst.

My question is, can I hold my inspector responsible for missing these problems and causing my health to deteriorate?

(I'll post photos later on)

[HayZee518]

wasn't much of an inspector if he / she missed the obvious. inspectors have a checklist they go by - the foundation and any standing ground water should have been checked out. if the sewer line was so visible why did they miss it? the matter of mold is definitely a health issue. if you have respiratory problems existing, its further exasperated by the mold spores in the air. you can hold them responsible for your ill health. go one step further and have the property checked for radon.

[Tug]

Thank you for your quick reply I apologize for not going into more detail I didnt want my original post to lengthy.

The house has been throughly checked out by a mold remediater and treated he said would be surprised if there was any more mold. This past Thursday he took some air samples and sent them to Florida to be analyzed and wont have the results till tomorrow (Monday).

When I moved back in after the mold had been remediated I began to get extremely dizzy and light headed so he bought over an industrial air scrubber to clean the air which has been a life saver. Two days later after he collected the air samples he took the air scrubber and I started to get light headed and dizzy again so I called the HOA and had them call the mold remediater and he brought it back over, once he did that the dizziness and light feeling I had went away.

I emailed the Inspector and asked him how he could possibly miss the water damage in the crawl space, he said that he saw some moisture and suggested that a water vapor be installed but that was the extent of it. I feel had he actually gone back to see why there was moisture in that part of the crawl space he would have saw the cracked foundation of the sewage leak, brought it to our attention and I would have not purchased this property until these to defects were taken care of.

I tried to post some pictures but dont have a high enough post count as of yet.

[Tug]

Would someone else care to chime in Im a little desperate and could use some advice.

Thank you

[pushkins]

It's Monday, I was waiting to hear what the air sample test results where/are.

[Tug]

Sorry it took so long to reply, air tests came back negative meaning there were fewer mold spores on the inside of the townhouse than the outside which is what you want.

Turns out there's been a sewage leak coming from a 20' 6" cast iron pipe on the other side of my foundation. The leak was reported by the previous owners back on September 25 2009, after inspecting it the maintenance man the HOA sent said it was from the sprinklers but nothing was done to dry out the crawl space or investigate any further.

In short there's been sewage leaking into the crawl space for over 3 months and the HOA believes that treating it like it's a mold issue will take care of the problem and refuses to spend anymore money to clean it up correctly. I'm going to Heath Department Monday and report them if that doesn't work I'm going to get an attorney.

I've been trying to post pictures but every time I do it tells me I dont have enough posts. The first time I received the message it said I needed 5 posts now all of a sudden it says I need 15... WTF?

[pushkins]

If the leak was in the sewer line then the HOA has a legal responsibility to clean up "anywhere" that the effluent went, inside or outside a premises. In your case effluent is in a crawlspace area and this can actually be more harmful then in an open area with plenty of airflow (wind etc...). Mold remediation is NOT the same as effluent remediation.

[Tug]

Pushkins, the sewage pipe in question was located under the garage's OUTSIDE of the foundation that my townhouse sits on. I confirmed that this was sewage from the neighbor's toilet, shower and washer. I suggested to the HOA to just contact a Industrial Hygienist, I wasn't asking the HOA to spend any money but to just to talk to the Industrial Hygienist I spoke with and and see what his recommendations were over the phone, it wasnt going to cost them a dime.

Here's their reply:

Tug, the association will not pay for it, you will have to as we have done everything in our power to correct this situation. If you know him maybe he would come and do it for you at a reduced cost.
We have had professionals on the property, we have done the best we can do to remedy this , we have the report from a reputable company stating that it is a very safe crawl space.

I am sorry but at this point the association will not be able to pay for another professional to tell you the same thing.


The crawl space was remediated for mold at no time have they tested the air or soil for any microorganisms or anything else that could create a health hazard from 3 months of sewage in the crawl space. I cant believe they could be so stupid as to put me in a situation where I have to retain an attorney and sue them. Their negligence to remedy the situation started back in September 09 had they be proactive back then none of this would be necessary.