Dream home and a buyers nightmare
Hello everyone, We are not sure where else to turn to get our story heard.
We bought a house in Whitesboro, TX. A older home, but it was exactly what we were looking for. The seller (who was also a realtor) asked us to waive the 10 day option period to get our own inspection done, because he just had buyers that fell through that just got their inspection done and we could look over that. Well with the Market how it was In May/June, we decided to go ahead as long as the inspection report was sent that night and it wasn't a cause for concern.
We closed on June 28th 2021, and moved in the weekend of July 4th. The day we moved in I noticed dead bees on the floor in our play room (15 of them to be exact). I thought it was super weird and took a picture.. i also took a picture of mouse droppings that were under the kitchen sink. A day or two later, we noticed there was a bees nest between the siding and the brick of the house in the back yard. (on the other side of the playroom).
The 1st few days after we moved in, I decided to do a load of wash, the washroom flooded the entire floor, the water heater closet and even went under the wall into the garage as well as to a part of the house that has carpet (the other side of the water heater closet).
Then the toilets started not flushing and bubbling when we were in the shower. By the 2nd week we moved in, our toilets were only flushing once a day. We tried to get home warranty involved but they claimed they could not help. We got a Plumber out to see what the issue was, they had to break my concrete back porch and there were two breaks in the line right off the back of the house. We try to trouble shoot the problem and fix it as best we could at that point knowing we needed to do some more digging and figuring out.
On the 20th, we were all outside enjoying the nice shaded back yard and my husband goes inside and the sink is flooding. There is RAW SEWAGE coming from the sink. It flooded everything the counter tops, the draws, the shelves, all out cook ware in the draws and bottom cabinet shelves. the floor, under the refrigerator, my daughters room, whose bed was still on the floor, the carpet in her room.. from her room it even went onto the front porch.
We filed a claim that afternoon, it was like 6p maybe. We also got an emergency plumber out there to help with the situation and he stayed until 11;30p that night and he came back the next day. ($720)
Didn't expect to get a call back that night from the insurance but we did not get a call back the next day either. We had a private claims adjuster come out on Sunday. In fact we didn't hear anything from anyone until the 28th, but it was from a friend who happens to work in the insurance business that was able to send us our policy, because we didn't even know what that was. Still no call from Home Owners of America.
On August 1, 2021 we finally had enough and we found a number from housing headquarters. Who ever answered the phone was shocked that the insured was calling him and not the home owners of America. He said he would get it worked out and move us into temporary living because it sounded like we needed it. Finally someone gave me a number and email to the claims examiner. I emailed her and she got back to me that night (Sunday) and said it wasn't her job to contact us until the claim was finalized. SO we have no idea who should have contacted us. Our sales rep from goosehead, either quite or got fired the same day we made the claim. SO we had no one to advocate for us, no one from Home Owners of America Calling us.
We found out we had 19k worth of Damages, BUT our insurance policy is apparently the crappest on the planet and we have a 15K deductible. Meaning we were only getting a little over 4k to help with the repairs and lost items. All the while my kids are getting sick, it ran through all of them and I 100% believe it was from staying in the house with raw sewage. We didn't have money for a hotel until the housing came through. The entire plumbing system needs to be redone and we have gotten two quotes for 22k!!
This past Saturday, August 7th. My Husband and a bee keeper spent 12 hours trying to remove a bee colony and a few more hours the next day ($1000) Our playroom is torn up, the keeper said these bees were their for a long time, and the owner would have noticed them with all the updates he was doing to the house.
We contacted a real estate attorney and he said he doesn't think we have a case. My family of 7 is living in a hotel, displaced from our home because its unlivable right now. We couldn't take our dogs and cats and have to drive back and forth daily to let me out. (20 mins each way).
The realtor/homeowner didn't put anything on the disclosure list, but I've talked to several plumbers that say with redoing the entire master bath, and replacing both toilets' he has to have know something.
My husband and I just want to go home, my kids, want to go home, I'm sure our animals want us home. School starts next week and I haven't prepared.. and I will have to drive them 20 mins to get to school, 3 different schools. So my kids 1st day of school pictures will be taken at a hotel instead of our dream home we thought we were getting. I can only imagine how this is affecting my kids, and how they will handle school work and just living in a hotel for the foreseeable future.
All funds will help our family of 7 get back into our new home, so my kids can play in the beautiful back yard, sleep in their awesome new rooms, and do their homework in peace and not on top of each other in a hotel room. My husband and i can living in the house where we don't have to worry about this happening ever again. (because we were told if its not fixed that there is a change this could happen again, or worse.
I have never asked for anything as much as i need this to happen right now. It breaks my heart that no one that should be helping us is, so i am reaching out to our community and social media.
Thank you for listening
The Johns Family