The time that this will take from the initial inspection to the close of the sale of your home will probably range from 3 to 4 months. Polybutylene pipe health risks and product failures led to a successful class-action lawsuit in 1995. If you have both the money and the time to make repairs and market your home to the general public, that could be your best choice. lending What is the difference between water pipe and sewage (waste) pipe? homebuying What does polybutylene pipe look like? Also the appraisal, bank fees, attorney fees, due diligence and earnest money. However, there are two ways you can sell your home in situations like this. Why is it a problem? Interior pipes are white and can be confused for other types of piping. I think you are correct to worry about it, and if she has those pipes in her house she's in denial that it won't impact her ability to sell at some point or cause her expensive repairs. Although, today, one of the most popular water pipes is PEX pipes. These pipes get weaker from the inside due to chemicals added to the municipal water supply. Are Polybutylene Water Supply Pipes Bad? But, of course, there are expensive ones and relatively cheaper ones as well. As weve mentioned, the uncertainty of buying a home that has polybutylene pipes creates a scary situation for most homebuyers. They intend to sell the house right away after repairs are made. Why is there a flexible accordion pipe under the sink? Facts vs. Fiction 6. We are in Florida and provide plenty of information about hurricanes and sinkholes, for example, but nothing on basements and ice dams. May be used as supply lines to plumbing fixtures or . How can I tell what type of plumbing pipe I have? Your agent is not liable at this point since home inspection did what it was supposed to do: discover defects and needed repairs. Visit ourPLUMBINGpage for other related blog posts on this subject, or go to the INDEX for a complete listing of all our articles. Seller didn't disclose polybutylene pipes in the Disclosure Statement My SO and I have a bid on a house in North Carolina and are in the due diligence period. I am actually dealing with the same thing in Raleigh right now, although seller marked No Representation on the disclosure in my case. But read the fine print: If a buyer asks, this same statute requires the seller to disclose any death on the property more than 3 years old. Now that weve looked at the options for selling your house with polybutylene pipes, you can apply them to your circumstances. What is the difference between PVC and ABS plumbing pipe? real estate Polybutylene water supply pipes broke in the ground outside homes causing soil erosion and foundation damage (if this has already happened to your property, here is an article about selling a house with foundation problems). And try and get the price reduced. Some states' disclosure laws are more comprehensive than others, and if a feature isn't on the list the seller may not be required to speak up. Minerals in the water, particularly chlorine that was used for purification reacted poorly with the pipes. Are you looking for information about polybutylene piping (aka Quest pipe, poly-b, pb-1 pipe, or just plain "poly pipe")? We will get it done for you. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. This is true for a private source like a well, or a municipal water line. Make sure that any reviews that you rely on are authentic. An inspection report, and possibly the appraisers comments, will note the historical problems with polybutylene pipes. Messages sent using the form on this site, go directly to our email, which we check regularly. If they have not failed yet, thats hardly an endorsement of their condition. Fill out our Request a Cash Offer form to get a few offers from competing real estate investors working in your area and vetted by our reputation standards. (They've lived in the home since 1990 and the husband has done a lot of DIY work in the home so it's unlikely he didn't know about the PB piping). McGarry and Madsen. Generally speaking however, we know insurance coverage for homes with poly piping has been a headache for many homeowners. To maximize the value you get from the sale of your property to an investor, consider requesting a cash offer from HouseCashin. I've been conducting professional home inspections since 2002. The property will have to be fixed before closing if a mortgage is involved. However, the total cost of repiping a house may be as high as $15,000 depending on a variety of factors. The contractor will repair and repaint those sections before finishing the job. Mold can cause respiratory problems in adults and the development of asthma in children. Additionally, it has become very common for sellers to either make concessions for a buyer to re-pipe after closing or to re-pipe the home themselves before the sale. When temperatures rise and fall, poly pipes will expand and contract. No, it is no longer produced. However, Re-piping is a long process that can go on for a few weeks and will also cause a lot of mess around the house, and no one wants to deal with the mess after just having moved into their new home. Even though most potential buyers would hesitate to go for a house with polybutylene pipes, there are always specific buyers interested in it these type of properties, as we have discussed earlier. Are Polybutylene Water Supply Pipes Bad? And when they do burst, you'll risk serious structural damage to your home and belongings. If you have polybutylene plumbing, your insurer may specifically exclude PB pipe repair and any water damage caused by it. These include: Levels of chlorine and other minerals in the water: the water we receive generally has certain minerals added to them to ensure that the water is safe and clean for our use. It is estimated that a lot of homes built during that time still have the original plumbing in place. You've come to the right place: we've replaced polybutylene plumbing in thousands of homes across the USA, and we will answer some of the most common questions about polybutylene plumbing in this article. Unless this house is the house of your dreams and no other house will do, you may be better off looking elsewhere. I started HomeInspectionInsider.com to help people better understand the home inspection process and answer questions about homeownership and home maintenance. Remember, you cant tell what the inside of the pipe looks like. Compared to copper, it was inexpensive, easy to install, and had several other advantages like being resistant to damage from freezing. After that, building codes around the country no longer allowed the use of polybutylene pipes in new construction. This way you can decide which method is right for you. Look around your water heater, pipes in attics or crawl spaces, piping across the ceilings of basements, and supply lines under sinks in cabinets. The uncertainty surrounding your homes plumbing will easily push it off of their list. This means that a buyer would need to have the financial ability to buy the home and then make repairs. These minerals are a primary reason that contributes to the deterioration of the polybutylene pipes. If you are the listing broker and you or your seller knows the property has polybutylene or Kitec plumbing systems, it's pretty obvious - you must disclose the fact to the buyer just as you are required to . Why is there a flexible accordion pipe under the sink? Hence, to answer the question, yes, a seller is obliged to disclose the presence of polybutylene pipes. Polybutylene pipes are difficult to identify. Polybutylene (PB) piping was standard in homes built between 1978 and 1996. Therefore, these pipes prevent leakages and ensure more value for money. foreclosures Initially, polybutylene pipes were popular because they were: Inexpensive Flexible Easy to install Polybutylene pipes fall under the category of a material defect, and almost all states make you disclose any information related to a property defect. You just have to know who your prospective buyers are, where to find them, and what other factors of such a deal you should consider. The primary manufacturers of the pipe were Shell Chemical Company, Qest (pronounced "quest"), and Vanguard. The kind of pipes you use to replace them, The size of your home and how many stories it has, Whether or not the work includes exterior water supply connections, the availability of the inspecting plumber and the contractor, if you have good weather for any exterior work, the average Days On Market (DOM) for resale homes in your area. Can You Sell a House With Polybutylene Pipes? Including: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah & Washington, Published:2022-06-01|Updated:2022-06-27. If Polybutylene plumbing is bad because it breaks off into the water supply. Florida case law provides that, with some exceptions, a home seller must disclose any facts or conditions about the property that have a substantial impact on its value or desirability and that others cannot easily see for themselves. If the seller chooses not to replace the polybutylene pipes, give them a release agreement to sign that protects you from all potential liability. If you find a vendor who was previously in the house and alerted them to the fact that the pipes needed to be replaced you have proof. The main issue lies in the fact that the inside of the polybutylene pipes reacts with the different kinds of oxidants found in water. 16822 SE 92nd Danna Avenue, The Villages, FL 32162, www.thevillagesbestinspector.com Comments or questions tomcgarryandmadsen@mac.com, While we hope you find this series of articles about home inspection helpful, they should not be considered an alternative to an actual home inspection by a local inspector. Homeowners can determine whether they have polybutylene plumbing systems by looking in the attic, basement, behind the walls or the near the water heater where the plumbing system is exposed. In all but three states (Alaska, California and South Dakota), sellers aren't required to disclose deaths from natural causes. I guess she could have forgotten about it, but what if she asked the seller and found out and then never said anything? The insurance agent gave me the quote without the pipe information and it was way too high so I forgot about the pipe question until now. The average cost to replumb a house will vary between $5,000 to $7,000. You may have seen examples of this on television. Mold remediation - aside from the health risks associated with living in a moldy home - is intrusive and very expensive. The majority of polybutylene plumbing installed is still installed and working fine. How do you accurately find a broken water pipe leak under the floor slab? A frequent by-product of the water damage was mold. Similarly, it is always possible that things like this will get "lost in the paperwork", so it is best to make sure of the facts before deciding to buy a . The pipes would have to be removed and examined. Water pipe and sewage ( waste ) pipe water supply chlorine that used! 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