Unexpected Problems at Garfield Delay Homeowner and Title Insurance

Problem #1 Live wires at the wall heater

As with every real estate transaction there's always a surprise or two along the way. With the Garfield house we had some electrical issues and a survey issue that had to be cleared up before the insurance company would issue a policy and before the closing attorney would issue title insurance. We had the house inspected before closing but apparently the insurance company looks for a few more things than the home inspector did. Luckily we have a good electrician that we've been working with for several years because as expected I had to had travel out of town for work that week.

The first electrical issue was in the retro bathroom where there was an original wall heater than was not working. We had to either fix the heater or ensure that the electrical connections to the heater were capped off.
Being that the house was 60+ years old we opted to remove the wires all the way to the power source ensuring that it would not be an issue. We could have just added some wire nuts but decided to just pull the wire.


Problem # 3 Exposed wire in closet

I actually like the retro bathroom - it's the original bathroom and looks like something from 1950, because it is!  So far Jan has it last on the list to rehab so it'll be safe for a while.  Gotta like that yellow tile!

Electrical issue #2 was an unterminated wire under the eave of the house on the west side.   This is another one that a couple of wire nuts could have fixed but we had the wire on this one pulled also.  I believe the previous owners were planning on putting a security light on this side but never got around to it.   It's actually a good spot for one now that decided to put a shed on this side of the house since we will not have a garage.

The last electrical issue was in the outside closet where someone had run wire from an electrical outlet in the attic down the inside wall and through a hole in the outside wall and connecting to an outside receptacle.  The receptacle was used to power the sprinkler system control box.  To fix this issue conduit was added between the attic receptacle and the outside one and the wire run inside it.  Another easy fix.

Moral of this story is that even if you have an inspection don't expect it to find all the problems that the insurance inspector would have concerns with.  I'd expect they would but this is not the first time we had a problem like this.  In a previous blog We Need Rehab: Home Inspections Lower Risk I discussed how inspections can lower risk.

The title insurance issue problem cost a bit more to fix and started at the seller closing table when the closing attorney was casually discussing the survey and questioning the improvements that the sellers had made to the property.  If you look closely at the survey you can see a wood deck on the front of the house and a fence line on the west side of the house.  The sellers removed both of them.  However, in spite of the fact the lot lines had not changed nor the footprint of the house he would not issue title insurance to us until the survey was updated!  Generally the survey is the responsibility of the buyer and we were going to need to get an updated one anyway - just don't need this problems at the closing table.

Lot Survey showing wood deck that

That's it for this post and have a great day and be thinking about my back.  I'm working on the rock pit over the next few weeks.