[cooljoe51]

I bought a property that turned out to have a leaking oil tank. It had been leaking for the last 10-15 years. I've owned the property for 1 year, previous owner since 1964 (or so). I have had the contaminated dirt remediated and have a whopping bill. Is the previous owner liable for part or all of the clean up costs? If he is unwilling to pay, can I sue or put a lein on his current property?

I have the same problem, except for I've been in the house for four months and there was supposed to be insurance on the tank. I then came to find out that it was never transferred over to me at closing, I'm wondering as to who can be accountable then? The workers found 17 holes in the tank and I have no way of paying for this, I did everything because the state wanted the oil tanks out of the ground, and now because of someone else's mess up I'm getting this. Is there anything I can do?

[rockinmommy]

Well, 4 months ago isn't that long.

When you say "it was supposed to transfer to you"... do you have that in writing as past of your purchase contract, or a separate contract? What made you think it was supposed to?

[ScottGem]

First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on someone else's. This can lead to confusion. You should start a new thread. So I've moved your question to its own thread.

Who was responsible for transferring the insurance? That person didn't do what they were supposed to so that person is liable.

[cooljoe51]

To answer both of your questions it was a contingency on getting my mortgage. The mortgage company will not give me the mortgage unless the tank was either pulled OR had insurance on it. The realtor sent all the information over to the lawyers in accordance to what was "supposed" to be done. The lawyers office did have the information, but said they didn't know it was supposed to be transferred over (basically trying to wave liability) My biggest issue is that I have to take care of this quick as well, the company who did the tank removal left the old tank in a 6 foot hole that's butted up right against my basement.

[rockinmommy]

Ok, so I understand what was SUPPOSED to happen.

What I'd like to know (or what YOU NEED to know/have) is do you have WRITTEN documents showing/stating information about the transfer of the insurance? Did the attorney have the written documents?

The point is that there was a break down at some point between what was "supposed" to happen and what actually happened. If you have a written paper trail you should be able to fairly easily identify where the break down occurred and then go about holding that party liable. (It may involve hiring an attorney to file a suit against them, unless they just admit liability and pay.) If it was all verbal statements about what should happen or needed to happen, that never happened, then you don't have a very strong case against whoever didn't do what they were (verbally) told. It would be a harder case to prove.

Does that make sense?

I guess the answer to your question is that it's probably time to hire an attorney to go after whoever didn't do what they were supposed to do.

[cooljoe51]

It makes sense, and I believe the realtor had discussed everything with the lawyer. Then sent him the paperwork for the insurance, which the lawyer did have the insurance paperwork.And like I said I would have never been able to get the mortgage unless I had the tank insurance. I live in NJ unfortunetly they want every tank out of the grand.

[cooljoe51]

Is there anything I can do to speed up the process, I don't have any money and I need to get that tank out of the ground before I get property damage

[rockinmommy]

Have you talked to your mortgage company? They will have a heavier hand with the attorney, realtors, insurance companies, etc at this point than you will. But I suppose you run the risk of them calling your note due because of issues with the tank (?).

Do YOU have the paperwork that STATES that the attorney was handling the transfer of the insurance? At this point, without hiring an attorney, all you can do is send strongly worded letters, including copies of whatever paperwork ordered the attorneys to handle the transfer to the attorneys and demand that they rectify the situation.

Do you have a copy of the mortgage approval with the contingency? If not, get that - someone has it. Then contact the mortgage company and ask them what prompted them to remove that contingency. They must have been satisfied that the insurance transfer took place in order to lift the contingency.

Do you see what I'm driving at here?

I hate to tell you this, but what most likely will happen is that you'll have to sue whoever dropped the ball. So you'll need a paper trail to prove who dropped what.

[cooljoe51]

I see where you're going, I'm just trying to get through this without having to go to court... the only other thing I can think of is when the original homeowner got the tank insurance he had a soil sample taken. That must have come up clean. The soil sample they are taking now can show how long the tank has been leaking for *which definitely is not 4 months* so maybe I can prove liability on the insurance company that way?

[John WA]

As a retired lawyer I'm familiar with some law book/library resources that might help you figure out your next steps here, without any real monetary cost to you.

Depending on where you are, and the population of the area, the 2 law libraries that could be of service you to are the Courthouse LL, or if it's too small, the nearest Law School. Some of the smaller counties can't afford to keep any law library other than its state statutes and reported court decisions... but the L School will have almost any law book of any use to you.

I suspect many (most?) law schools these days may charge you a small amount to use their facilities, so take a few bucks with you to cover this.

A big set of books there will be COA (Causes of Action), which is a compendium/collection of all kinds of law suits that have been brought for most every kind of legal action... tort/negligence/product liability, etc. and some time spent in this set of books will find you similar law suits and actions against sellers, oil companies, etc. all arising out of leaky oil tanks.

The article in COA should lead you to local (at least in your state) law firms who have been involved in such litigation, and possibly some reported lawsuits that have been tried and appealed in your state.

Another big set is ALR (American Law Reports) and it could have an article or two on leaky fuel tank litigation that'll give you ideas and maybe local rescources.

There should be a book or two there on Expert Witnesses and it'll show you names and numbers of experts around the country on such as "leaking oil tanks"; also the LL will have some books on such lawsuits, and the L Librarian should be able to point them out to you. Lots of these Experts would be happy to chat with you and maybe even recommend a lawyer or two whom they know might be interested in talking to you.

After all, if you do hire such lawyer and he's needing an expert witness, he's likelly to call and pay your expert W on your suit.

Although I've not handled such a suit, I'm thinking there could be negligence an/or liability found to exist against any one of several parties in a case like this:

- Seller of property to you re adequacy of his/her disclosures to you re condition of the RE
- Engineers who may have looked at the property and been negligent in how they conducted their study, or how they reported it, etc.
- Any remediation firms who've claimed to have cleaned up the mess, but really didn't.
- Title Co, if you got title insurance when you bought the property, if they had or should have had knowledge of such leaky tanks and didn't report that to you.

Good luck to you here.

I'm on the Advisory Board of a non-profit that owns such a polluted corner that otherwise would be worth a lot of money, and we've been going through the process of finding what pollution there is, cost of removing, etc. so I know there's lots to think about on one of these polluted properties.

[cooljoe51]

Wow, thank you for all the information, that will be very helpful. I was just trying to avoid the road of a lawsuit, but it's looking like I really may have no choice. I'm now at the point of worrying about what kind of damage is going to occur to my house from the huge hole in the ground. I'm not planning on leaving the house any time soon so remediation taking a while would be fine to me... but once I start getting structural damage because of it.. that would make me very upset :(