House Purchase - Whole House RO System?
- Thread starter Alcyone
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I would contact the State Attorney General first and see what they say since that is free. I have only reported Allstate Insurance and a TV seller, so I don't know how your situation would work, and they can't give you legal advice but they might say you have a case.
Was the inspector hired by the seller, you or the bank?
Right. That is all it is.
Have you written up everything with dates and copies of the escrow and title and everything? I don't see how the Realtor keeps their license after all that.
The inspector was hired by me but was recommended by my buyer's agent. He did a previous inspection on a property I walked away from so I thought he was legitimate. Yet it appeared he was either enamored by this house and it's recent remodeling upgrades that he didn't seem to do that great of a job, or he was influenced somehow to facilitate the sale.
I only closed on this house on June 27th so getting everything written up won't be an issue. I like your recommendation to go to the state attorney general.
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So no hot water out of the faucets? Is the water heater functioning? Is it turned off? Seems pretty odd.
Have you traced out the hot water line to see if there is a valve closed somewhere, maybe under the sinks? Does water come out when you turn on the faucet on? Are they single handle faucets or double handle? It seems really odd there wouldn't be hot water connected to multiple faucets, maybe one but not multiple. Is there plumbing connected to the hot water side under the sinks?
Ron Van
Well-Known Member
We had one in two different houses in Sacramento. Wouldn’t live there without one. It gets pretty hot in the day but cools off starting at 6pm almost every night. Pushing the hot air out of the attic and sucking cool air into the house was marvelous. We rarely ran it all night. We had it on a timer. It was also installed on top of a tunnel that put it 15” above the ceiling and into the attic. I found the hum of the blades to be restful.
I have considering installing one here in Alabama but I’m not sure how it would work with high humidity. It gets down to 70-75 degrees overnight but the attic never cools down making the A/C run all night.
Upon further investigation, hot water does in fact come out of both bathroom sink fixtures after a couple of minutes. My mistake on that.
It does not come out of the kitchen faucet after 10 minutes. It is a single handle unit. Water comes out in both hot and cold positions. Turning off the hot water valve underneath the sync stops the flow of water when handle is turned to hot. Water resumes when valve is opened. Same story with the cold side.
I have not traced the line from the kitchen sink back but will do so.
It does not come out of the kitchen faucet after 10 minutes. It is a single handle unit. Water comes out in both hot and cold positions. Turning off the hot water valve underneath the sync stops the flow of water when handle is turned to hot. Water resumes when valve is opened. Same story with the cold side.
I have not traced the line from the kitchen sink back but will do so.
The bathrooms sound like you have a Tankless Water Heater, it's around 2 minutes for Hot on any tap here. Unless your Kitchen is for some bizarre reason hooked up to it's own Hot Water Heater that is off, I have no idea how that could happen.
There is no other explanation that I can think of.
nobes
Well-Known Member
You may have recourse if the seller misrepresented the "whole house RO system" in the sale. If the system is not functioning as advertised, you could potentially claim misrepresentation or failure to disclose and consult a real estate attorney for legal options.
Regarding the system, if the water tastes like chemicals and has high flow, the RO filters or membrane could be damaged or ineffective. It sounds like the system might not be a whole-house RO system, but rather a point-of-use dispenser.
For the water conditioner, if you have hard water, it is better to replace it with a real water softener, as a conditioner typically doesn't address hardness.
It’s recommended to have a professional plumber inspect the system and review the sale documents to determine if you have any legal grounds for action.
I talked to a lawyer (free as this is a benefit of my employment) and he said the only way I'd have recourse is to prove that the seller and/or seller's agent knew about the issues. It's possible it was misrepresented out of ignorance. At this point, I don't see anyway to do this. I would need to obtain a copy of the previous home inspection (that the seller got when she purchased the house), assuming that would provide useful information which it very well may not. That has proved to be extremely difficult. Multiple calls to the title agencies, realtors, etc. and none of them have it. I suppose I could call every home inspector in the area and ask if they have the record, but without knowing which inspector performed the previous inspection, that's probably a waste of time.
Bottom line: question everything BEFORE you purchase a home.
Bottom line: question everything BEFORE you purchase a home.
There may not have been an inspection by the previous buyer. It seems very unlikely there would be a whole house RO system, I've never heard of one. A main reason is an RO system will waste about 1 gallon of water for every gallon it produces. On a whole house that would be sending a lot of water down the drain not to mention the high cost of a system that large. That why they are mainly for a single tap. Could you maybe find the real estate listing for the house before you bought it? I don't know where you would go to look for something like that.
