Buying a house with a propane tank requires checking tank ownership, identifying the fuel supplier, and inspecting the system's condition. Tanks are either leased from a local company or owned outright with the property. Out-of-service propane tanks are a hazard because they store a flammable liquid that, in gas form, is heavier than air.
If the propane supplier owns the tank, you are obligated to purchase propane from them. If you stop using them, you are responsible for removal of the tank from the ground to allow the supplier to reclaim their tank. If the propane tank is abandoned, the prior propane supplier, even if they own the tank, will likely abandon you, and you will be tasked with paying for both tank removal and disposal, including any remaining propane.
When buying a house with an abandoned propane tank, your top priority is to determine the legal owner of the tank before closing. Unlike buried oil tanks, propane does not contaminate groundwater if it leaks, but it is a liability hazard, and your insurance company may have issues with an abandoned propane tank. Propane is heavier than air; older propane tanks that are not being maintained can leak, allowing propane to run along the ground surface, and if an ignition source is found, things can go very bad. When you hear about a house having an explosion, oftentimes you will find it was from an
unmanaged propane tank.
The number one reason propane tanks are left abandoned in the ground is due to cost of decommissioning the tank. Decommissioning a propane tank is dangerous as you must manage the propane gas itself. In fact, an empty reading on a propane tank can still have 10% of the tank volume remaining. Meaning a 1000-gallon propane tank that reads empty can have 100 gallons of propane.
While a propane leak will not harm the environment like an oil tank leak, it is a hazard, and decommissioning the tank is a danger to your bank account.
We have been contacted by countless new homeowners who bought a house with an out-of-service propane tank. The husband typically has a dream of connecting the tank to a propane grill and never buying propane again. This dream never materializes, as the tank is never near the grill area and the wife of more sound mind doesn’t want a large tank containing flammable gas to be removed from the property. Calls to local propane suppliers find that they do not own the tank and want nothing to do with it. To be fair, the tank was likely serviced by Joe’s Propane, who got purchased by Mega National Propane Company. Well, since Mega National Propane Company doesn’t sell propane to the home any longer, they have zero interest in doing anything with the tank. That's where Curren Environmental comes in, we have decommissioned thousands of these abandoned tanks. We do it to prepare a home for sale, during the sales process as the buyer wants it removed, and lastly for new homeowners who didn’t realize the out-of-service propane tank was an issue.
