4 Responses to “Todd English’s Real Estate Nightmare” »»

1. Anon
   Comment by Anon | 10/03/08 at 10:59 am

   Wouldn’t this be something that a home inspector is suppose to catch? After all, bad foundations in Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and the South End are a well-known problem.

2. Observer
   Comment by Observer | 10/03/08 at 1:15 pm

   Caveat emptor. A simple review of publicly accessible groundwater well depths, which any responsible buyer in the SE, BB or BH should do, would give you a sense of likelihood that there was, or was not, risk of the piles not being under the groundwater level. The wells are all over the city……generally, anything on the flat of BH will be in trouble.
   Unless the piles were actually excavated or an engineer did bldg. movement analyses, there is no way to know for certain whether the piles are damaged.
   Sounds like he’s going to have to sell a couple extra over-loaded plates of hash.

3. John Keith
   Comment by John Keith | 10/03/08 at 7:44 pm

   Well, that’s all well and good Observer, but I don’t know anyone who goes to that extreme. Should they? I don’t know.

   We don’t know the specifics of this, but serious questions are raised by the case.

   The main issue seems to be he is claiming they hid the knowledge of the damaged pilings. If they had no idea, that would be one thing. I live in the South End. I have no idea what’s under my building. I would never suggest I did. I would never say it’s on real ground. If asked, I would tell the buyer to hire a structural engineer. And, maybe, a historian.

   Should a home inspector know? Absolutely not. A home inspector is not an engineer, or an electrician, or a lot of things. Unless someone’s going to drill down 50 feet, he or she would never know.

   I re-read what you wrote, and I guess you are saying the same thing. If no one checked, there is no way of knowing.

   Perhaps sellers’ agents should start having clients sign disclosures similar to lead paint disclosures: “The seller has no knowledge of any issues with foundation or groundwater.”

   Perhaps the city has to get involved?

   Or maybe we can just draw a big red line around certain parts of the city and declare them “off-limits”?

4. Rutland
   Comment by Rutland | 10/04/08 at 10:52 am

   The federal government should bail him out, the poor lamb.

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