Expert: Dick Dennis - 1/18/2008

Question
In July 2007 we put an offer in on an old house near the water.  Our realtor told us that the vendor was in the process of adding a gray water tank to the existing black water tank because that is what the city needed for it to be conformal since the house was close to the water. We wrote in our conditions that the both systems needed to be conformal and that the land had to be returned back to the way it was before.  
On the date we did the final signings at the lawyers office which was the same day as the possession date, the lawyer asked the vendor and her realtor for the certificate of conformity for the tanks from the city.  The vendor said she has one but not with her.  The lawyer held back $8000 for the septic tank and told her to get her the certificate A.S.A.P.  Needles to say the vendor never had permits or a certificate for either system. A couple weeks later after possession the vendor did a test of the existing tank and it failed miserably.  After many months of the vendor trying to pull " fast ones" on us ie. lying to the septic engineer about the specs of the house ie, how many bedrms,,telling him this was just a summer home etc to have a septic installed that had to be pumped every 6 weeks instead of a once every 2 years system,......
The engineer is the vendors puppet since she is the one who is paying for the system,..Now the engineer says that the only system possible is one with a pump and it can't be in the same spot as it was before etc etc....
This is not what we want for many reasons and now I simply don't know what to do.
Our lawyer told us this is a case of DOL where she lied to sell her house which is absolutely true as we have our neighbors as witnesses to say she was in full knowledge that the original tank was faulty and that simply adding a gray tank to the existing tank would not do....she new a whole new system would have to be installed to conform.  

Our lawyer said that they will try to negotiate with the vendor but she won't budge even though she has lied SOOOOOO many times on so many different issues not to mention some hidden defects that she painted to conceal.  Our lawyer says that if we want to proceed in court it will be $30,000 as when dealing with difficult people the costs run higher than normal and we can't be sure to win because of the house sales lawyer holding back the $8000 for the septic tank.  

With all the hidden defects and this septic tank issue there is no way we would have spent what we have on this place.  We had another realtor come to evaluate the house in full knowledge of the problems and he said that the house would be worth about $60,000 less than what we paid if we were to sell it as it is.
Any advice would be appreciated since I feel like pulling all my hair out because of this problem.

Answer
It is obvious to me, Gia, that EVERYBODY was so interested in getting paid no one had the guts, including your attorney, to say, "Okay this sale is not going to close until we are satisfied that the house is in satisfactory condition." But your attorney, your Realtor and everybody in the picture just didn't care for your interests.

If it was me, I would be suing them all!

I am so livid right now, that I don't think I can recommend anything other than what I have said above. I wish you well.

Dick Dennis          dixiedee13@aol.com