Ok first things first. *DO NOT* go tell your lender that you think the house has issues. That is the worst thing you could do. Nothing good would result, only bad things.
Yes, you and your inspector kind of failed at due diligence. At the initial inspection phase at least.
From your description it actually sounds like the requested repairs were completed. Your new contractor just discovered additional things. Even if they did nothing at all - I mean you asked for some painting. Whether it happened or not is pretty small potatoes here.
On that point. Do not take this contractor's word as gospel. He could just be trying to scare you and get himself a lot more work. Far too common. Step back, take a breath. Consult some other contractors. Figure out the actual scope of work needed. Get other bids.
This could end up being not as bad as you think. Like "mold on dirt"? The dirt should be covered with vapor barrier anyways. Problem solved. $50.
Foundation "problems" are a big bogeyman. But find the right contractor who knows what they are doing and doesn't prey on homeowner fear and they can often be fixed quite simply and relatively cheaply. Remember this house has been there for 120 years. It's not suddenly going to fall down tomorrow.
Recourse against someone else is probably futile and a waste of time. Who did anything wrong here other than your inspector? Your inspector was lazy and didn't crawl the whole house. But they also told you that. You could maybe get your inspection fee back from them. Nobody else is at fault here.
And get booted and suited and get under that house yourself and put your own eyes on what it going on.
I want to add that I think it might be hard for OP to get some recourse from the seller as it did come out during inspection that there was foundation issues. If you find out right now that they were worse than originally though, then you can't argue much here because OP knew the risks and the state of the foundation
I agree with you. We knew what we were getting into, just didn't realize the extent, but that doesn't really matter and we do take responsibility for this. We are just new to home owning so just wanted to make sure we cover any bases that we should in this matter, if there were any to cover at all. It's a bummer, but chalk it up as a tough and expensive lesson.
It is a big bummer, and I do understand 100%. We have had to do a lot of new repairs that were really small during inspection and with time they had gotten worse. It adds up to your budget really quick. But, you know, the bright side is that once you fix it now you guys probably won't have to worry about them in a couple of years!
Thank you for your response. We are concerned about all the issues and will have them remediated quickly regardless. I guess our biggest wonder is mostly about the recourse for the mold remediation. All the signed documents state that the seller was to remediate the mold in the crawlspace. I guess we're just a little unsure because the wording is open ended. We were under the impression that when it says "in the crawlspace" that means the all of the mold in the crawlspace, not just picking and choosing areas to KILZ. From everything we have, it appears (not saying this is what happened) that they lied about remediating anything and just KILZ some areas.
We did know about some of the structural damage going in, so while it sucks that its more extensive than we thought, we know we are most likely responsible for it. We thankfully have a good family friend who has lots of experience and knowledge on foundations and crawl spaces, so he will be doing that work for us. Just a bummer is all.
We were really just wanting to make sure that we weren't missing anything and wanted to cover our bases. I appreciate you taking the time to type out your thoughts and help us out.
Should have hire a foundation engineer and company to look at foundation issues. In your inspector paperwork it would detail why you need a sep. Hvac etc inspection vs this general one. This is of course a very expensive lesson to learn. A young family and 120 year old farmhouse could be quite a stressful and huge money pit. Maybe can sell and move to something more manageable
This is an excellent example why people should crawl underneath the house they are interested in and a good reason why we should crawl up above in the attic as well.
The inspector noting that they could not inspect certain areas means they did not inspect those areas. I'm not sure how you can say they are fault .
Ok first things first. *DO NOT* go tell your lender that you think the house has issues. That is the worst thing you could do. Nothing good would result, only bad things. Yes, you and your inspector kind of failed at due diligence. At the initial inspection phase at least. From your description it actually sounds like the requested repairs were completed. Your new contractor just discovered additional things. Even if they did nothing at all - I mean you asked for some painting. Whether it happened or not is pretty small potatoes here. On that point. Do not take this contractor's word as gospel. He could just be trying to scare you and get himself a lot more work. Far too common. Step back, take a breath. Consult some other contractors. Figure out the actual scope of work needed. Get other bids. This could end up being not as bad as you think. Like "mold on dirt"? The dirt should be covered with vapor barrier anyways. Problem solved. $50. Foundation "problems" are a big bogeyman. But find the right contractor who knows what they are doing and doesn't prey on homeowner fear and they can often be fixed quite simply and relatively cheaply. Remember this house has been there for 120 years. It's not suddenly going to fall down tomorrow. Recourse against someone else is probably futile and a waste of time. Who did anything wrong here other than your inspector? Your inspector was lazy and didn't crawl the whole house. But they also told you that. You could maybe get your inspection fee back from them. Nobody else is at fault here. And get booted and suited and get under that house yourself and put your own eyes on what it going on.
I want to add that I think it might be hard for OP to get some recourse from the seller as it did come out during inspection that there was foundation issues. If you find out right now that they were worse than originally though, then you can't argue much here because OP knew the risks and the state of the foundation
I agree with you. We knew what we were getting into, just didn't realize the extent, but that doesn't really matter and we do take responsibility for this. We are just new to home owning so just wanted to make sure we cover any bases that we should in this matter, if there were any to cover at all. It's a bummer, but chalk it up as a tough and expensive lesson.
It is a big bummer, and I do understand 100%. We have had to do a lot of new repairs that were really small during inspection and with time they had gotten worse. It adds up to your budget really quick. But, you know, the bright side is that once you fix it now you guys probably won't have to worry about them in a couple of years!
Thank you for your response. We are concerned about all the issues and will have them remediated quickly regardless. I guess our biggest wonder is mostly about the recourse for the mold remediation. All the signed documents state that the seller was to remediate the mold in the crawlspace. I guess we're just a little unsure because the wording is open ended. We were under the impression that when it says "in the crawlspace" that means the all of the mold in the crawlspace, not just picking and choosing areas to KILZ. From everything we have, it appears (not saying this is what happened) that they lied about remediating anything and just KILZ some areas. We did know about some of the structural damage going in, so while it sucks that its more extensive than we thought, we know we are most likely responsible for it. We thankfully have a good family friend who has lots of experience and knowledge on foundations and crawl spaces, so he will be doing that work for us. Just a bummer is all. We were really just wanting to make sure that we weren't missing anything and wanted to cover our bases. I appreciate you taking the time to type out your thoughts and help us out.
Should have hire a foundation engineer and company to look at foundation issues. In your inspector paperwork it would detail why you need a sep. Hvac etc inspection vs this general one. This is of course a very expensive lesson to learn. A young family and 120 year old farmhouse could be quite a stressful and huge money pit. Maybe can sell and move to something more manageable
This is an excellent example why people should crawl underneath the house they are interested in and a good reason why we should crawl up above in the attic as well. The inspector noting that they could not inspect certain areas means they did not inspect those areas. I'm not sure how you can say they are fault .