Does the owner of the property have to be made aware tanks weep is being performed?

A tank sweep is a form of due diligence, like a home inspection, every seller has to allow inspections, although they don’t have to agree to fix anything.  Every seller should be aware that the buyer is paying for these inspections, so they are aware these items are a concern.  Nobody likes to be surprised by problems, which inspections by nature are looking for.

The owner should be aware we are doing an inspection specific to oil tanks because if we find a tank we want it removed and I was told they have no knowledge of any oil heat.

Do you need to go inside the building during a tank sweep?

100% you have to go inside the building and inspect for evidence of prior oil heat.  Anyone not going inside is doing an incomplete inspection. To provide a thorough tank scan, Curren needs access to the basement heater room during the scan and no cars in the driveway.

An oil burner switch and an oil burner fuse inside the door are both clues that are indicative of oil heat.  Curren also sees "cut outs" in the flooring of the basement, or lines sticking out of the flooring, both are clues that an oil tank was present on the property at some point in time. 
 

Speaking of visual assessment as part of a tank sweep, one of the photos below suggests an oil tank the other is 100% not an oil tank.  The trained technician knows the difference.

What happens if you find an oil tank during a tank sweep?

When a tank is found the owner/seller must be informed of the tank and that it needs to be removed and tested to verify no leaks.  But it goes deeper than that, a cascading series of events occurs.

1. The settlement will need to be pushed back typically a month or more as you need time to get permits, remove the tank and get soil sample results. Example: We just had a tank located and removed prior to the settlement they pushed back settlement twenty days on day fourteen we removed the tank and it leaked, now the leak is reportable to the state environmental agency, and you will have to do reporting to the government, which takes time.   As we waited a week for the test results, the settlement was not moved back any further, three days before settlement we get all the test results 100% failure and soil remediation required. The Realtor, mortgage company, and buyer were like deer in the headlights as there was no backup plan.

2. Find a tank, the seller must address the tank for the buyer or cancel the contract and disclose the tank to all FUTURE BUYERS, meaning updating the Disclosure Statement.  A Realtor must update the listing referencing the tank. Example: had one where we found a tank, the seller canceled the contract, and got a new buyer but NEVER DISCLOSED the tank.   Buyer found tank AFTER PURCHASE.   Man, the number of attorneys and people getting sued was large and the buyer walked away winning.

3. Find a tank, and see if the seller will take care of it because as you have just read, they need to do the right thing.  Buyer can push back settlement until at least the tank is removed and soil sample results are returned, and it can be determined if remediation is or is not required. Example: Had this situation occur, but the tank was found under a deck, buyers paid for soil testing where we could test, and contamination was found.   We found cancer, but the extent was not known because the deck prohibited access to drill test borings.   The buyer and seller came to some financial agreement on the purchase and the buyer got monies back or off the purchase price.   We remove the tank and performed a remediation, but the contamination was extensive, and the buyer needs more money to clean up the leak but the seller is saying they agreed on an amount and no more funds will be provided.

Buyer Beware when it Comes to Mold & Oil Tank

If you are buying a home, it may be your first or may be your third.  Either way the internet has no doubt made you a sharper consumer. You can assess the property online by evaluating photos, sometimes 3D tours of the home, school districts, past sale prices for the property and the neighborhood, property taxes, the list goes on.  No doubt you know how to google information. So you find the home, make an offer, it goes under contract and now your due diligence happens.  A home inspection, etc.  You are a savvy buyer so you look into other inspections you can do, Roof?, Mold? Oil Tank Sweep?  Yep, you do them all but guess what the seller has access to the internet as well, they may even be buying another home so they have concerns with inspections of their own.  But since they are selling they are also concerned with what you might find and the cost.

Be fair, if you had a buried tank at a home you were selling and you googled oil tank leak and the following photo popped up, how forthcoming would you be about the tank?  

True statements:

Sellers don't want to have to spend money to sell their homes.

Buyers, don't want to spend money on unexpected repairs, mold and oil tanks are top of the list. 

Both items are not covered by a home inspection, so while a home inspector may flag that the hot water heater needs to be replaced, they are not going to point out a $4,000.00 mold remediation.

The best advice we can provide is to be aware of what inspections are prudent during the home buying process.  

Regarding tank sweeps, they can be a lifesaver.  Tank Sweeps

Tank Nightmare aka property listed again with no mention of the oil tank

The contract of sale falls apart due to the oil tank.

The story goes that the owner selling their home finds that their old unused oil tank is not a selling feature so they decide not to mention it on the listing information.  Home goes under contract and out of guilt, sellers admit to an oil tank when asked.   Curren quotes the removal and the seller wants to know what happens if the tank leaks.    The seller decides not to remove the oil tank, this killed the deal.

Fast forward a few weeks, and the property is relisted, again with no discussion of an oil tank.    So now a seller is flat out forgetting a tank was known to exist (I don't say lie) and we get a call from a new buyer for the home and they want us to do a tank sweep.

Really, must we be the only straight-talking people?  Hey, this situation is easy to resolve, we remove the tank.

But how about the person who buys the house with a tank that was not disclosed (we found it for another buyer) and they get transferred with their job in a year and have to sell the home?

The anger, the lawsuits, heck the only happy people are the attorneys.   Happens again and again. Realtors if you are reading and if you know the listing has a tank and the buyers are not disclosing, you better disclose, I have a few realtors getting sued for this.  Email can be forever, people talk, buyers share bad news (ever hear of social media?), I am not going to say how each attorney researches facts,  to trace how someone knew something and didn’t disclose it or blankly fabricated an untruth, but it's much easier than you think.

Now to be fair we have been around for over 20 years, we touch thousands of sites a year and every so often we get a boomerang.  What is a boomerang?  A project we were involved with stopped dead in its tracks, Curren finds a tank, finds mold, finds contamination, the deal falls through, owner cancels the contract for tank removal/mold.  Ok it happens, we aren’t pushy, if the owner changes their mind they have our number.

Why talk about this, because buyer beware, I would rather consult for a buyer to interest BEFORE they buy a problem.

Why are we happy when we find a tank, find mold, or contamination for a buyer?   Because our client doesn't own the property yet, we did our job we found a problem and now this problem can be presented to the seller for correction.  Surely the seller doesn’t want to sell you an environmental problem costing thousands of dollars?    Sadly there is a % of people that will, many step up, but some sellers do not, hence you need for proper due diligence.  

When buying a home a home do your due diligence.

Tank sweeps?  Click here  Tank Sweeps

Mold Inspection Click here  Mold Inspections

Expert advice you can rely upon, that Curren Environmental.

Understand the process of a tank sweeps and what happens after a tank sweep.

The best situation regarding a tank sweep is finding a tank, therefore it can be removed and soil tested to prove that no soil remediation (cleanup) is required.

A hidden or an underground oil tank is a major financial liability when buying a home, because rust never sleeps and oil leaks from the tank. Soil remediation from leaking oil tanks can easily cost into the tens of thousands of dollars.   A tank sweep of any property is always recommended unless you can document the site never had oil heat, unfortunately older homes had oil heat since it was the only option after coal use.

Should I buy a house with an underground oil tank?

An underground oil tank can make a home harder to sell or worth less to a potential buyer, how does a $32,000.00 oil tank cleanup ding the value of a home?  How about a cleanup over a $100,000?  They happen as well.    A known oil tank can also increase the chances of complications with getting to the closing table and the home sold. Mortgage lenders are wary of buried oil tanks and may refuse to lend on a home with an underground tank.  Appraisers and insurance companies may also flag the tank as a liability and want it addressed.

What is the life expectancy of an underground oil tank?

The average life of a UST is about 20 years (if you bought a middle of the road tank today, that is your warranty.) However, with the tank buried, other factors will influence the lifespan of underground tanks, including the gauge of its steel, geology, corrosivity of the soils, etc. 

FACT:  most tanks were used past their design life expectancy and left in the ground unused past their life expectancy as well.

How do you manage the liability with an oil tank?

The liability of an oil tank pertains to leaks that occur and the state mandated cleanup of the oil leaks.   The best situation regarding a tank sweep is finding a tank so it can be removed and tested to prove that no cleanup is required.

What happens if the tank sweep does not find a tank but points to a tank being removed?

This is not your best scenario because now you do not know if the tank leaked or where the tank was located. Clearly not finding a tank means your investigative work is not complete, because you do not know if the tank leaked.   Tank sweeps cannot find removed tanks, so you are tasked with historical research on who removed the tank.    So you will be tasked with doing soil borings with laboratory testing to ensure there is not residual oil contamination from the removed tank. 

The best approach is to assume the tank leaked until proven otherwise.

Bottom line you have to make an effort to find where the tank was located.   Sometimes owners get a conscience  and will admit that a tank was removed, they just did not think that knowledge was relevant at that time. Sometimes a tank sweep can point to a likely area of where the tank was located.

We had a case where an owner removed their own tank in the backyard without a permit.   They eventually were going to sell the home and did not want the tank as an issue. The final cleanup was around $40,000. Someone admitting to a bad thing is not common, but we do see it happen.

Sometimes we can find the tank grave, other times we have to do a grid of soil borings in the suspected area to try and find the tank grave and to test soil.

Tank sweeps that point to a removed tank will lead to soil testing in the area of the removed tank, unless of course a report exists of the tank removal with testing and a clear statement that the tank did not leak. Best case you find no contamination, worst you find contamination, which is reportable to the state and further work would be necessary.

The following two photos show where a tank was removed 20 years ago, so we had to do soil borings to evalaute for oil.  One of the two sites had oil contamination, do you know which one?

Be aware there have been many tanks that were removed, that leaked and were not cleaned up. Owner hoped no one will look or test the area.  If you don't have  a report that includes laboratory data saying the tank did not leak, you don't have what you need to remove the liability of the tank.

What about if a tank sweep finds a tank?

Well if the tank was not previously disclosed it is news to both buyers and sellers.  And since no one knew about the tank, the tank needs to be removed and tested.

What about if a tank sweep finds a tank, can I test the tank?

Realistically, since you will not be using the tank, (ever) the smart move is to remove the tank and test soils where the tank was removed from.    Soil borings can cost almost as much as tank removal and you cannot test under the tank so you will not be $100%.  You can have contamination under the footprint of the tank which can require remediation.   To be fair if you have contamination under the tank depending on where the tank is located, you won't have a $40,000 cleanup, but you could spend $5000 to $10,000.  

What about if a tank sweep finds a tank, can you pivot and then tell me if the tank is leaking?

Tank sweeps use mobile radar units (see below photo on the left).  These units are carried in a SUV.  To perform soil borings you need a drilling unit which is carried on a trailer and towed by a pickup trucks (see photo on the right).    Both pieces of equipment are over $50K and are not brought to a tank sweep typically as you do not know if you will need to drill and if you read the above question you can see why removal is better.  In addition every state requires that you obtain a underground utility markout before you drill or dig, this can take 3 to 4 days and is not obtained for a typical tank sweep.    You also typically do not have permission from the property to drill on their property, tank sweeps are non invasive. 

Need to learn more about tank sweeps? Click here. 

Curren Environmental has been solving tank related issues for over 20 years.   Oil tanks were like cell phones, they were ubiquitous in homes in the Northeastern United States.  Oil was king as the graph shows:

Oil heat was more popular than natural gas up until 1980!

In 1950 43.9% of homes had oil heat

In 1960 62.9% of homes had oil heat

In 1970 52.6% of homes had oil heat

So in 2019, what are the odds the home your buying has or had an oil tank? Pretty high for sure.   

Tank Scans with GPR = Buyer Due Diligence

A tank scan found this tank.  You can see from the many holes in the tank, that the tank leaked.   Thankfully the home buyer had a tank sweep completed and found the tank.  The homeowner had to remove and remediate the oil tank.