LOUDOUN COUNTY RESOURCES, SOIL TESTING FOR UNDERGROUND FUEL OIL STORAGE TANK TESTING. SUCCESS.

Lenn, it is very helpful to know the steps in this category of inspection.

Lenn, thank you for sharing this.  I heard about these services but never saw them done.  Atlanta tends to be more of either all electric or natural gas.  I see very little heating oil here.  The other item that I did have once on heating oil which sometimes can be a leak was water...but water can also come from condensation and I am sure these folks that you used could determine the cause.

Gary.  Thanks.  There are just so many things to cover.  Sometimes it gets so complicated.  The seller was not at all happy with this inspection.  Good it turned out well.

Jim.  I suspect that these guys could handle about anything  I just wanted to make sure there was no ground contamination from a leaking tank.  If there was, I wanted it during the inspection contingency period.

Hi Lenn, very interesting. I had to think back a lot of years when I lived in the Midwest and tried to remember where our heating oil tank was stored. Since I could not be sure that it was in the basement, it probably was outside in the ground, though I don't recall how the trucks would fill it. The coal was easy, we has a coal bin for that furnace as well as an oil furnace.

I have never heard of oil furnaces ( oil storage tanks) being used here in Southern California but that certainly would not guarantee there aren't some. Oil was the choice elsewhere and surely could have been here as well.

Great idea, knowing you had one in the ground to do the due diligence to ascertain if there was an soil contamination.

Oh William.  You just don't know.  I'm the most risk averse real estate practitioner you know.

My buyers are VA buyers and they are buying a 38 year old home.  The husband can fix just about anything so we're not concerned about the systems, but if there were contamination of the soil, the seller would have to fix it.  That would be very costly.

Since I've been primarily selling new homes for some years now, I haven't run into an oil tank.  But, I suspect that if I keep taking on buyers in the sticks of Loudoun County, I'll run into it again. 

The testing was very reasonably price and the testing crew was wonderful. 

I may run into this one day. Good to know. You could not have made the steps easier to follow.

Thanks Linda.  I haven't run into a buried oil tank for many years, but they're are still a lot of them in older neighborhoods.  I've sold a lot of homes with oil heat, probably a hundred or more but the tank was always in the basement or above ground in back of the house.

Lenn,

When I sold RE in NY it was something to be aware of on the exam. In FL...I don't believe we have those issues...but we have other environmental hazards to watch out for and companies have to test if requested.

Lenn, Speaking of oil heat, a buyer today told me that he didn't care for a house that uses oil because his friend said it cost $11,000 a year to fill the tank! HA! I told him he may have added an extra zero...depending on the size - I'm guessing less than $3,000 a year. ??

Linda.  Oil is a commodity and it flucutates in price depending on when the supplier buys the futures.  Folks need to really shop around for oil prices.

$11,000 a year would not surprise me for a very large home in a very cold part of the country in a poorly insulated home. . . . . . .

Neal.  I suspect that if folks tried to bury oil tanks in Florida, they might hit water.

Lenn, I remember hearing a lot about underground oil tanks about a half dozen years ago, but haven't heard anything about it lately. And now I'm wondering why.

Any way enjoyed the pictorial account of the inspection.

Jay

Lenn - certainly is valuable information for buyers in your area. Not an issue in my neck of teh woods but we had many of these tanks back in the Boston area. Fortunately records were often files with the fire department to show that they has been removed.

Jeff

Jay.  I suspect that many of the home owners have replaced the oil heat with heat pumps or natural gas got to them.  Or, perhaps they went with Propane.

Jeff.  Loudoun County keeps records of commercial oil tanks but not residential.  Sooner or later. . . . . .

Having attended an underground oil tank remediation (for hours) class, they needed photos as you've shown. It's so simple, yet when described verbally...overwhelming for some. This is good stuff- thank you.

Lenn, I have been very fortunate to not run into much of this around here.  Most of the oil tanks are in basements, and very few are in the ground.

We still have a few underground tanks here. I probably run into one or two a year and always recommend the seller replace them since the buyers  always ask for them to be dug up and replaced indoors.  It is probably only a matter time here in Connecticut where that will be a requirement.

Good info sound like a good test to have done by the seller before they sell the home.

I was biting my virtual nails waiting for the results.  =)  Glad it all turned out well.

I have a Realtor friend who bought a piece of land that she planned to develop into a mobile home park, but decided against a soil test. The land had never been developed and she thought it would be a waste of money. So she proceeded with buying the new homes, setting them up, and selling them. Families moved in, the exterior wall was built, landscaping was installed, etc. Then they started doing the digging for the road paving, and exterior light installation. Surprise! They found old paint barrels underground. They then got a cease and desist order while the EPA came in, wearing scary hazmet suits. They forced all the buyers to leave their homes. Some of them moved the homes elsewhere, and some sued my friend. She bought the houses back, rather than fight their law suits!

2 years and about a million dollars later, they discovered that the previous owner had known about the barrels. The previous owner had also owned a paint store, so he had improperly disposed of these old drums of paint by burying them on this vacant land. And he had not disclosed this information to her. So he had to buy back the land, and none of the barrels had leaked, so there was no toxic waste to clean up. My friend got off relatively easily, all things considered. But she still lost about a million dollars.

Lenn- Interesting. We don't have that kind of testing here and we don't have underground oil tanks either:) 4 feet down and you hit water, great for wells. :)

Lenn - Underground oil tanks are a concern here.  Nearly every buyer wants the tanks pulled out and the soil tested before they will buy a home.  Even when I see an oil tank inside a home or a conversion to gas, I recommend having an expert come in to search for an underground oil tank, unless the seller can provide documentation of removal and testing/remediation.

Lisa - What a nightmare!

So many people are afraid of these tanks.  Test find out what if anything is wrong and move on.  It is a good idea for people thinking of selling to do this test before they list.  It can save a headache later on and help them to sell quicker.

Lenn,I've bookmarked this for future reference. While not a daily issue we encounter, it does happen. Not nearly so expensive as one would think.

Laurie.  Thanks.  Pictures are essential.

George.  Very few are buried here either.  Most are in basements or behind or beside the homes.

Linda.  The inspection company says that the expected life of these tanks is about 15 years.  I've seen many that were twice that old.  But, as time goes on, I believe the county will have reg about them.  They already to here for commercial tanks. 

Tery.  Not this seller.

Maggie.  You were biting your nails???  I always bite my nails over any inspection.  You never know.  I sweating the appraisal today.

Lisa.  Thank you, thank you.  Wonderful example of why this testing is important. 

I had a buyer for a building lot in Howard County a couple of years ago.  This one just didn't look right, so I did a title search.  The property had been on the market for a long time and there were several people on the deed.  When I went to the Office of Land Records, I discovered that the property had housed an automobile repair shop for 10 years about 4 years earlier and the owner had stored junkers for parts in back of the shop, which had been torn down. 

You just never know.  You just never know.

Katerina.  I figured that.

Gail.  Good for you.  The liability for these thinks is monumental.

Paddy.  Many sellers just figure that if it is good enough for them, it's good enough for a buyer.

Janice.  It's good practice to be careful.  No, it is not expensive considering the tank is between the house and the well.