Oh, sorry I didn't make this clear in my original post:

I didn't say that the sump pump was located _IN_ the crawl space. In
fact, I don't know where it's located. I have just noticed on the
listing that the house has a sump pump (something that has skipped my
attention up until now), but that's all I know for now. I am going to
see the house tomorrow morning.

My remark about the crawl space was as an aside, I just meant to add
that the house does not have a basement, but only crawl space.

As far as making sure that the pump works, is that something the owner
has to be checking every day? Do you then need to get down to where the
pump is located?

thanks again