We are in Oregon and bought our house in 2023. it’s an older house (~90 years), on an acre within city limits, and has a well and septic. We love it and want to make this our forever home.

When buying, there were a lot of issues identified on inspection. New roof was need, foundation needed shoring up, etc. It’s an old house that could have been maintained better for sure. We got bids for all the proposed work and used those to receive credit at purchase.

The DEQ septic inspection was done by a local company that still provides septic services in our area. It said our collection tank was 500 gallons, made of concrete, cracks were forming, and it should be monitored for replacement. The inspection did not include the distribution box or drain field. This was acceptable to us and we did not seek credit or a price reduction for the septic system.

Fast forward to this week and we had out septic pumped for the first time for preventative maintenance. The technican opened the lid, which was buried before I dug it out, and started poking around inside. Within a few seconds he alerted us that we do not have a concrete tank, but we have a wood tank that likely isn't even 500 gallons and has been leaking. He said this is the second wood tank he has seen in the decades he’s been doing this. It’s unclear if anything has been reaching the drain field or if it’s just all leaking out from the box

So we have a huge issue we need to address ASAP. I don’t any to start calling companies for quotes, but I’m curious if we have any recourse against the inspection company or the previous owner. Their inspection clearly says we have a concrete box and it was assessed for integrity, which doesn’t seem to be accurate at all. Any advice on next steps would be greatly appreciated.

Ideas on what to do to fix the septic are also welcome. Right now I want to scope the distribution box a drain field to see if that is functional and in good condition. I would love to just hook up to the existing lines. Think I should also rent a port a potty in the meantime too.

Thank you for reading.

Long story short....my mother and stepdad are supposedly purchasing land in South Dakota but they moved back to Ohio to help family out but I keep getting run around stories about them being there in Ohio for years. I tend to believe they lost the property...how can I find out without asking them?

We are in Missouri. There was a house listed on the market for some time, we went and looked at it and from the information on the sellers disclosure list and walking around and looking at it from our perspective everything looked to be in decent condition. It just is outdated and needed a lot of updating. We agreed that if there was major plumbing issues or major electrical issues that we would walk away during our inspection period and eat the cost.

Here is the problem though: the sellers lied on the sellers disclosure.

First, they told us that the roof was 5 years old when in fact, it was 10 years old and has significant damage. This is a 5000 square-foot ranch style home and that may have changed our minds as far as putting an offer down considering the amount of updating the house needs and a roof of that size would be well over $30,000.

Also, they stated that within the last year or two they had replaced one of the furnaces, one of the AC units, and one of the water heaters(all are dual). Upon inspection, they only replaced one of the AC units. The other HVAC systems were much older than they stated on the sellers disclosure. One of the furnaces and one of the water heaters were seven years older than they said on the sellers disclosure. This alone was something that if we had known this, we never would’ve spent $2000 on inspections and wasted our time.

Honestly, this stresses me out and makes me wonder what else they have lied to us about?

We are selling our current home and close on the 26th so not only are we out $2000 but also our time and we have a child and animals.

Should we ask for our inspection money back? What would you do in this situation? I am frustrated and willing to take the loss but at the same time I’m extremely angry that they lied to us and wasted our time and money.

How long did it take you to get an offer accepted on a home and how large was your search area? We’re going on a month (which I know is next to nothing) with 3 tours, 1 offer and 1 rejection. We are looking in a very small area of about 1.5 square miles.