The Casull Family - We are going to be homeless

My family and I are urgently in need of help. My name is Maria Casull, I have congestive heart failure, lack of balance, weak extremities, PTSD, SEID (systemic exertion intolerance disease), my family (my two autistic teenage sons ages 18 and 19, my husband who suffers from dementia due to a stroke, and our loving cat's ages 8 that we rescued at only 5 weeks) moved from Long Island in the summer of 2022 to Upstate NY, since moving here we’ve had every homebuyer’s nightmare come full force from the moment we’ve moved in until now, and we have lost all hopes to keep our home.

We moved into our first home after selling a small piece of property we had, we got what we could and bought our first home with it. About two weeks after moving in, a smell came through the vents from the basement, the main sewer line was clogged due to a tree root on our property that grew into the pipe on the front lawn. The main sewer line broke inside the basement due to the pressure of the clogged pipe from the tree root. Our basement is full of waste and water from the toilets and all the sinks in the house. All the water from 3 sinks and 2 toilets is draining into our basement, the only bathtub we have is on the second floor and it drains into our kitchen, so we can’t use it. Due to this, we have not been able to take a bath or shower. We do have a bidet which helps, and we wash up with little water and wet wipes. We haven’t used our washing machine yet because of the water going into the basement. The furnace that came with the house is 25 years old and no longer working or fixable. We were told by 2 furnace companies that we need a new furnace due to the current one being completely outdated. We’ve contacted HEAP for assistance with the furnace but were told they are unable to assist us because we have not been in the home for a year yet. Another fuel company let us borrow a heater temporarily, which we gave back now. During the winter months when temperatures reached the negatives, our pipes froze and due to the furnace not working, we were unable to keep the house warm. Thankfully we were able to borrow a heater from a fuel company. We were able to place the heater in our upstairs bathroom. We left the stove and oven on to heat the kitchen pipes and the attached half-bath pipes. We also dripped the hot and cold water in all the faucets in the house, we had them dripping throughout the whole winter. Even though the water went straight into the basement, we didn’t have a choice, we couldn’t let the pipes freeze again. During the warmer months, the basement creates a toxic gas that comes through the closed vents. This hazardous situation has been a serious factor in both my and my family’s health. The town will condemn our house and have us leave, we have no place to go.

We had a home inspection done and to the naked eye, there were no problems with the plumbing in the basement. The home inspection was done on a Thursday and the upstairs tub was getting fixed on Friday per the realtor. The previous owner only came once a week for a couple of hours. We've asked for help from the lawyer, Realtor, we tried to get a home equity loan from the bank. We’ve also contacted HEAP, HUD, grants, and loans, we’ve even filled out forms online to establishments that can help us, but all have seemed to be dead ends. Four different organizations from our town did try to help us but have not succeeded. We don’t have any money, we used what we had to buy the house and move. I don’t know what else to do, with my husband having dementia, this all falls on me and I’m lost, I’ve tried everything I could think of with no luck. We’re tired of being cold and wearing coats and hats and sitting on our hands to keep them warm along with inhaling the toxic gases that seep through our closed vents. I’m scared for my boys, husband and cats, we need help, we don’t want to lose our house.

We are going to need $20,000.00, $2,000.00 will go to the clean up in the basement from a professional company. $13,000.00 will go to fixing the plumbing and the upstairs bathtub. This does not include the walls, floors, or ceiling being opened up to fix the plumbing upstairs. We don't know how much that will be. We don't know how much the furnace is going to be, I can get a used furnace that will take the place of the 25-year-old furnace that isn't working. Any help would be very much appreciated. We would be ever so grateful if you can please say a prayer for us. Every one of you is our last hope, whether you donate or share it or pray for us. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We'll keep you updated on our progress.

I want to respect the companies that gave me estimates for the plumbing, I removed their names and addresses for their privacy.

My husband Angel

Maria

Antonio our 19 year old son

Giancarlo our 18 year old son

Our loving cats Sparta is on the left and Zack on the

right. We cover them with blankets to keep them warm.

Our home was so cold that the inside of our front door

had ice on the door knob.

This is another picture of the inside of our front

door that had ice on the inside.

This is the culprit. The tree on the right side of

the lawn that the roots grew into the sewer line.

When we first moved into our house, my husband

took a bath since the shower wasn't working. When

he drained the tub, the water went right into our

kitchen ceiling. We put a bucket on top of our

stacked washer and dryer to catch the water from the tub.

This is after the tile fell apart

This is an invoice that my homeowner's insurance

received from the company that they hire to

investigate the plumbing problem I have in the

basement. According to my homeowner's

insurance, they said that I can fix the problem myself

and that they are not having me pay for the

deductible of $2,000.00. My homeowner's

insurance is paying the invoice of $2,660.00.

I received this letter from an organization

stating that they cannot help me and I

would be waiting for a long time before getting

help and I should try elsewhere. This

is the only organization that replied back to me.

This company came and referred me to a plumbing

company that would be a better fit to help me.

This company outlined what would need to be

done to fix my problem with the plumbing, they

gave an estimate of $10,700.00.This estimate does

not include the bathtub on the second floor.

The copy I received was very light and hard to read.

This is Page 1

This is Page 2 of the estimate

I received another estimate of how much it will cost

to fix the plumbing and the bathtub on the second

floor $12,945.00. This price does not include any

restoration of walls, floors and ceilings as said on

the estimate.

This is the bathtub that drains into the kitchen below.

I don't know if this is allowed, but, this is part of

the basement. This is just a small area of the

basement, but you can imagine what the rest of it looks

like. What you can't imagine is how bad the smell is

and how much worse it's gonna get once the summer

heat comes. This is what will cause our home

to be condemned and put us out on the street. I

wanted to give you an idea of what we are dealing

with. We call this the poop room. The pipe in the

back of the wall is where all the waste and water comes

out.