4 ms·

Author here: happy to answer questions.

by cbr 11y ago

FrankenPC 11y ago
How long have you owned the house? Toxic waste like that are grounds to sue the previous owner if not disclosed during the purchase...at least in California.
- cbr 11y ago
  We bought the house in February. We might try to sue people, but it's pretty clear the previous owners don't have much money. (The house was mortgaged to within a few-k of the selling price, and they had stopped paying their monthly payments. Which made it pretty hard to actually buy the house! http://www.jefftk.com/p/house-buying-timeline http://www.jefftk.com/p/house-buying-timeline)
  - FrankenPC 11y ago
    So sorry you had to go through this. It's a legit homeowners nightmare. What could be worse? Some kind of crazy crawlspace mold outbreak?
- rtkwe 11y ago
  > I talked to a lawyer, who didn't think we'd be likely to succeed if we tried to get the insurance company to pay anyway. They did think whoever owned the house at the time of the spill would be liable, but it would be hard to prove that the spill happened at a certain time and they may not have the money. Right from the article. Sounds like there have been multiple owners, no way to assign blame. Last owner probably can't be fined for something they had no knowledge of.
  - Gibbon1 11y ago
    I'm not sure, but maybe this is something title insurance is supposed to cover?
    - rtkwe 11y ago
      Doesn't seem to from my short reading, I'd not heard of it until now. Title insurance seems to be more for issues with the records about financial liens against properties that aren't properly recorded. It doesn't seem to cover this scenario and who knows if the author had it.
sirseal 11y ago
Thanks for writing this up! How'd you pay for this? Did you have to take out a loan? Did the companies have a payment schedule?
- nambit 11y ago
  You can check out his website, it has crazy detailed info about his earnings. I kinda feel like a creeper just looking at it. :/
- cbr 11y ago
  We had to prepay before they would do the work, $2.5k at a time. They've probably been burned before by people who can't pay, and I can see why they would avoid that. We live well below our means so we can donate more, so we did have some savings.
nambit 11y ago
That's a really awesome website. I hope you don't mind me looking around. The fact that you guys donate nearly 50% of your income (at that income level) is amazing to me and really awe inspiring.
- cbr 11y ago
  Thanks! Definitely look around; that's what it's there for. If you're interested in the donations stuff, I'd suggest checking out www.givewell.org -- their research is really top-notch.

Author here: happy to answer questions.

by cbr 11y ago

Author here: happy to answer questions.

How long have you owned the house? Toxic waste like that are grounds to sue the previous owner if not disclosed during the purchase...at least in California.

cbr 11y ago
We bought the house in February. We might try to sue people, but it's pretty clear the previous owners don't have much money. (The house was mortgaged to within a few-k of the selling price, and they had stopped paying their monthly payments. Which made it pretty hard to actually buy the house! http://www.jefftk.com/p/house-buying-timeline http://www.jefftk.com/p/house-buying-timeline)
- FrankenPC 11y ago
  So sorry you had to go through this. It's a legit homeowners nightmare. What could be worse? Some kind of crazy crawlspace mold outbreak?
rtkwe 11y ago
> I talked to a lawyer, who didn't think we'd be likely to succeed if we tried to get the insurance company to pay anyway. They did think whoever owned the house at the time of the spill would be liable, but it would be hard to prove that the spill happened at a certain time and they may not have the money. Right from the article. Sounds like there have been multiple owners, no way to assign blame. Last owner probably can't be fined for something they had no knowledge of.
- Gibbon1 11y ago
  I'm not sure, but maybe this is something title insurance is supposed to cover?
  - rtkwe 11y ago
    Doesn't seem to from my short reading, I'd not heard of it until now. Title insurance seems to be more for issues with the records about financial liens against properties that aren't properly recorded. It doesn't seem to cover this scenario and who knows if the author had it.

sirseal 11y ago

Thanks for writing this up! How'd you pay for this? Did you have to take out a loan? Did the companies have a payment schedule?

nambit 11y ago
You can check out his website, it has crazy detailed info about his earnings. I kinda feel like a creeper just looking at it. :/
cbr 11y ago
We had to prepay before they would do the work, $2.5k at a time. They've probably been burned before by people who can't pay, and I can see why they would avoid that. We live well below our means so we can donate more, so we did have some savings.

nambit 11y ago

That's a really awesome website. I hope you don't mind me looking around. The fact that you guys donate nearly 50% of your income (at that income level) is amazing to me and really awe inspiring.

cbr 11y ago
Thanks! Definitely look around; that's what it's there for. If you're interested in the donations stuff, I'd suggest checking out www.givewell.org -- their research is really top-notch.