DIYbanter - View Single Post - preparing an offer on house that has easement for septic tank in neighbors yard

wrote:
Hey everybody! Thanks again for all the comments, and suggestions.
1) We did get our money back, yeaahhh! and 2) I did call the "code"
boys out on the neighbor as well, I got so mad I felt justified in
doing so.

Now, one last question. The septic inspection, that included a 3
page report about how the system failed, and how much it would be to
put a mound system in, as well as about an hour and a half on site with
the owner of the septic company and another guy (although we really
just stood around and watched toilet paper come out onto the ground)
came with a bill for 360 bucks!! To me, this seems a bit excessive,
considering the entire house inspection alone was $250. Does this
sound reasonable to you guys, given the circumstances? (One being, they
got me out of a house deal)

Two guys for an hour and a half on site, plus a written 3 page report,
it doesn't seem that high to me.

He told me the day he came out to the house
he had no idea what it would cost, and his wife told me on the phone a
couple of days later that they never do anything like that so she
wasn't sure how much they would charge either.

Why would you hire anyone on that basis? If they never do any worklike
that, then what do they do and why did you hire them? I would either
have gotten a price for the inspection job upfront or else an hourly
rate.

I never agreed in
writing to anything, but I figure if I was an as* and tried to take
them to court I would lose anyway. I really do feel like they did a
good job, but not $360 worth of a good job. I'm thinking about either
calling them, letting my realtor call them (she offered to do so) or
sending them a check for either 200 or 250 and tell them I would like
to see a detailed breakdown of the billing, and just see what flies.
What do you guys think??

I think you should pay the bill. If you want to go to court, a more
interesting possibility is to sue the homeowner, claiming that she had
to know their septic system was a mere outfall pipe into a stream on
the neighbors property. And by not disclosing that upfront, she
grossly misrepresented the property and she cost you all the inspection
fees to uncover that the property couldn't even get a CO and was unfit
for sale.

THANKS A MILLION SO FAR!

Andy