OT >>>the 1100 gallon tank which was buried under the front lawn<<<
About ten years ago I went through that bitter-sweet point in life where I had to sell my parents' house after they had passed. It was in the fall. We had a buyer but things hadn't closed. I was was active maintaining the property as a courtesy, to ward off that "empty house" look against the threat of thrives and vandals, and just in case the sale fell through. One day I raked up the leaves behind the garage and took them to the curb. I had the great misfortune of uncovering a "fill pipe" when I disposed of the leaves.
A few days later we get a phone call from the buyer's agent.
Agent: "You guys didn't tell us that there was an underground tank."
Me: "There is no underground tank."
Agent: "What is this fill-pipe for."
Me: "I haven't a clue. I know of what you speak as I played back there in the dirt with my little bulldozers four decades ago. What's the problem?"
Agent: "If there is a tank, it might have leaked. Environmental violations."
Me: (Getting pissed) "Look, nothing has gone in that pipe in for forty years and probably seventy." (The garage was so old that in looked like it might have had horses. Maybe there might have been a heater at one time.)
Agent: "I have to hire an environmental team with a magnetometer and come check it out."
So of course they found a tank. So we have a choice. We can spend about $500 to have all sorts of ground test done to prove there was no leakage. If we found leakage then we would have to "remediate" the soil at who knows how much cost. Or we could take the tank out for about $800 and then there would have been no tank which could have leaked.
We have just paved the driveway in order to make the house more attractive for the sale. We explained to the agent that we would be happy to cut the fill-pipe off below ground level and back fill the tank with concrete. Then it wouldn't be a tank. We explain to the agent that we had the right to remove the tank are wreck the brand new driveway (it would be patched of course, but it would never be as good as new.) No dice. I couldn't blame the agent. Reputation, risk, clients having problems ten years later, etc.
We dug up the tank. It was 30 gallons. Rusted away and filled with water. Patched the driveway. What a foolish mess.
So I have some rather obvious advice. Don't even check your local ordinance for environmental nonsense. Go out there tomorrow with a hack saw, and cut off the fill pipe about a foot below grade. Find the feed lines into the house and cut them off about a foot from the house wall. Remove every vestige of there ever having been an oil heat system. You no doubt have some oil stains on your basement floor. Go paint over them. Create 20 year-old, false invoices from a fictitious contractor who you paid to remove the tank that never existed. Just in case. Sometimes an underground tank can be grandfathered in against the change in regulations. You might want to back fill the thing with concrete in case it rusted and made a hollow in your front yard. You would want to amend your fictitious invoices to include the concrete back fill.
Do it. Don't even think. Do it tomorrow if not this afternoon.
I would venture to guess that you are looking at a $5K liability today. There may be some disclosure sales form for underground tanks. I know there is for lead paint. Then you can stretch the truth a little to avoid a ding to your conscience if not allegations of fraud. If you were asked to testify that there was no tank, there wouldn't be a problem. After all, a tank w/o a fill pipe isn't a tank. |
