I can still smell the fuel oil

[Robert Mattison]

Seller wants to sell really bad.

Buyer want to know what that awful smell is in the cellar.

ME, "its fuel oil"

Customer: "you mean that fuel tank over there in the corner".

ME, "I think it more then just that fuel tank, were smelling, let me look in-
to this, and I report to you, what I find out."


Here what I found out, a local fuel company sent a driver to deliver fuel to
the owner address. The driver is brand new, neither been to this house
before. See a pair of pipe located outside the house. He connected his
hose to the fill pipe and pump away, way pass 275, even pass 400 before
he stop. Just so you, know the driver reported the house was lock and no one
home at the time. It turn out the the diriver was using the old filler pipe,
cut off from the oil tank. but never removed. :)

Customer: "did you find out what's making that smell"

Me: see my answer above.

Customer: "do all the stupid people live in Vermont"

ME: "not all, but we have more than are share" :D

Customer: "they did a good job, cleaning up the place, one would never know
what had happen, if it wasn't for you. By the why when you
send me your bill and an extra hundred for finding out what
happen in this house basement.

[Jerry Peck]

Robert,

I am sure you were very good at spelling out *environmental hazard and clean up costs could be into the multiple tens of thousands of dollars* and *possibly even more than the house is valued at*. :D

[Raymond Wand]

That same scenario has played out exactly the same with many homes who had not had the filler pipe capped. Happen to a friend of mine in Toronto. Esso fuel oil truck pulls up, driver begins to fill oil tank. Neighbour comes out and tells driver that the house has been converted to natural gas the week before. Driver tell neighbour more or less to mind his own business.

Six hundred litres later and a basement full of oil, damaging everything in contact with the floor, and not to mention the odour and a year later after remediation, Esso paid out $350k and that was twenty years ago.

[Jerry Peck]

Esso paid out $350k and that was twenty years ago.

That's what I'm talking about. :)

[Bob Harper]

Why in the world did the seller not sue the oil company for full remediation or have their homeowner's insurance do it then subro? Now these morons are facing Failure to Disclose. That includes the listing agent. All preventatble but the burden should fall back on the oil company who caused the disaster. The seller should also have gone after whomever removed a tank and uncapped it, unless they did it on the sly in which case, they got what they deserved. They could involve the local Fire Marshal to investigate, too.

Yes, better advise buyer about the obscene cost involved with cleanup and that this incident must be disclosed by any future selllers of that house.

[Raymond Wand]

Putting oil in wrong tank adds fuel to this warning (http://www.aaron.ca/columns/2008-08-09.htm)

Be careful when buying homes once heated with oil (http://www.aaron.ca/columns/2007-09-22.htm)

Forgotten oil tanks can prove expensive (http://www.aaron.ca/columns/2004-12-04.htm)

Homebuyer beware of old fuel oil tanks (http://www.aaron.ca/columns/2002-11-30.htm)


Oil storage tank leak a cautionary tale (http://www.aaron.ca/columns/2008-09-13.htm)