Ungerground Oil Tank...Please Help!

The house we like has 2 underground oil tanks, one is abandoned and filled with foam, and the other is the one used to heat the house.

The seller apparently has no paper work on any of the oil tanks, since this was done before he moved in. He said he was never given paper work when he closed.

When you abandon an oil tank and put in a new one don't you need a legal permit? why wasn't that ever given to him? My agent called the town and they have no records of any paperwork or permits.

I want to make sure there are no leaks or cracks in the tank. I want the legal permits for the abandonment. Now that banks are so strict with loans I'm sure they need to see that as well has home owner insurance.

I am not in conract yet and we want this house so bad, we have finally found our dream house after looking for 6 months of searching.

Has anyone been in my shoes? My Lawyer is working on this but I just wanted to know if anyone else went through this.

Sorry so long....thanks for reading!

Re: Ungerground Oil Tank...Please Help!

I'll double check for you tomorrow at work (I work for a company that abandons the tanks) but I'm pretty sure you need to get intouch with the department of health about the tank abandonment. In order for the tank to be abandoned the dept of health has to come and do an inspection-so that may be why the town (or dept you called) doesn't have any records. Start with the dept of health and go from there.

To put a new tank in, you do need the proper permits but depending how long ago it was maybe there aren't any. There are all sorts of tank regulations right now depending on what kind of tank is in the ground (which is why all gas stations are closed lately), so see if you can find out what kind of tank is in the ground and see about the regulations before you get a violation.

FM if you need more help.

Re: Ungerground Oil Tank...Please Help!

Say if it was done a while ago, shouldn't the home owner still have some kind of paper work. My agent did call the dept of health, sorry I said "town" and they don't have any paperwork.

Thanks for your response.

Re: Ungerground Oil Tank...Please Help!

We have an underground tank. Go to your Town...they will have all the documents on file. That is where we got ours. There are certain environmental regulations that need to be met and filed with the Town.

Re: Ungerground Oil Tank...Please Help!

Thank you!

Re: Ungerground Oil Tank...Please Help!

You should get a certificate saying the tank was abandoned.

Re: Ungerground Oil Tank...Please Help!

The same thing happened to us and I'm sorry to say but our lawyer told us to walk away from the deal (which we did even though I was so upset about it).

In order to get the proper permits both for the abandoned tank and the new tank, the DEC must come in an inspect. If there is any contamination, the owner as of the date of inspection is liable - this could be thousands and thousands of dollars in liability. You need to have this done BEFORE you sign a contract or go to closing. If you don't, it becomes your problem if there is any contamination. In our case, the seller wouldn't allow an inspection which made DH and I (and our lawyer) think there was a chance of contamination so we walked.

Our lawyer wouldn't let us close on the property and informed us we'd never be able to get a mortgage or homeowners insurance without the proper permits. Since the seller wasn't willing to do anything to obtain the permits, we didn't have a choice.

I'm still sad about that house (he eventually took it off the market because no one would go ahead with the deal) but I know we made the right decision.

Good luck.

Re: Ungerground Oil Tank...Please Help!

Re: Ungerground Oil Tank...Please Help!