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We all protect our home from fire and smoke, but what about water damage? The Home Insurance experts at BCAA offer eight excellent tips to avoid a costly mess

Water damage is one of the most common and costly challenges facing BC homeowners. The frequency and severity of water damage claims continue to grow due to extreme weather, more complex appliances and the growing popularity of condensed multi-unit living.

Most insurance policies do not cover water damage caused by continuous or repeated seepage, rising ground waters or surface waters – but sudden, while accidental, escape of water from a watermain, plumbing, heating system or internal drain are usually covered. Water damage resulting from a private external drain or entry of water through an opening in your roof are usually not covered and depend on your policy; additional coverage can be purchased for either event to provide you with protection needed.

A few simple precautions can help to safeguard your home and possessions from water damage:

Install water alarms. They work like smoke detectors but warn of leaks from toilets, water heaters, overflowing baths and sinks. Simply place near any water source and a high-pitched alarm alerts you to water leaks. Water alarms start from as little as $15 a unit.

Install stainless steel-braided hoses where possible. These hoses cost around $20 and are less likely to deteriorate than plastic hoses. Dishwasher and washing machine hoses should be inspected and replaced every three to five years.

Use a rain barrel. Rain barrels keep rainwater out of overloaded storm sewer infrastructures and provide you with water for your garden. Check if your municipality has a program that offers subsidies for a rain barrel purchase.

Connect an eavestrough downspout extension. Extend the eavestrough at least six feet from foundation walls to prevent water from draining into your basement, and direct it towards the street. Downspout extensions cost around $15.

Check the foundation. As ice melts or after heavy rain, clear any pooling water away from the home.

Inspect the roof. Get the roof inspected every few years to check the condition of the shingles and replace when necessary in order to prevent leaks.

Test the sump pump. If the basement has one, examine it and conduct a test run especially if it doesn’t get used frequently.

Protect your valuables. Consider moving valuables away from high-risk areas, such as the basement, or place items on high shelves or risers, especially in homes prone to water damage.

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Moving to a smaller place? Over time, we tend to accumulate stuff - lots of stuff. We have drawers full of stuff, gifts that we have never used (and never will), furniture we don’t really need but keep “just in case” and items that we’ve had for years may be difficult to part with due to nothing more than familiarity while serving no functional purpose. Now is the time to get rid of excess baggage (literally!) and pare down to the essentials.

5. Ransack your old storage areas. Go through your storage areas first (attics, basements, closets, etc). You will be surprised to find out what you’ve put away instead of gotten rid of. If you’re like most of us, you will find boxes of items that haven’t seen the light of day for years and there’s a reason for this: you don’t need them. Get rid of them at once. Hesitation will only melt your resolve.

• Don’t forget to go through your bathroom cabinets, kitchen and “junk” drawers. We have a tendency to accumulate unnecessary items in these places. Get rid of empty bottles, balls of twine, expired medicines and beauty products, and your collection of plastic margarine containers. Be brutal.
• How you dispose of these unnecessary items will depend on how much energy and/or time you have. The easiest thing to do is to load them up on a truck and drop them off at the nearest thrift shop.
• Join a Freecycle group to give stuff away (www.freecycle.org)
• If you live in an apartment building or townhouse complex, notice boards and drop off areas for giving unwanted items to neighbours is sometimes provided.
• Call up your friends and relatives and see what they need. You may be able to enlist their help in the move for a promised dresser/bed/armchair!

 

 

6. Sell your stuff. If you’re in need of a pre-move windfall, try these:

• For a large number of items, have a yard sale (or a series of yard sales), or if you have a lot to sell quickly, consider a service to take care of it for you (e.g., Google liquidation estate content sales).
• If you have time before the move, utilize sites such as Craigslist and eBay to sell off the best stuff. You’ll likely get more money for your items this way but it is more time consuming.
• Craigslist is a good avenue for selling larger items such as furniture, appliances and home decor items to people living in your area. If you have the means, offering delivery will often produce quicker sales.
• eBay is a good venue for selling collectible items such as old albums, comic books, and figurines. Make sure to take good quality photos of the items and offer good descriptions. Remember that you are a salesperson. Sell those products!
• Used designer clothing can be resold in consignment shops. These stores can be found in your local business directory. Be sure to shop around. Some stores offer better rates than others.

 

 

 

7. Get organized. Before you move into your new place, it’s a good time to work out some storage solutions for your stored items. You can do this as you pack. Place your storage items in decorative storage boxes that can be moved and placed in the new storage areas without much effort. Plastic bins are great for moving and storing, come in many sizes, are stackable, and the see-through ones make finding what you need a snap. The measurements taken of the new storage areas will ensure a good fit. Come moving day, these boxes will be much easier to deal with.

 

Label everything by room. Don’t think that you will remember big television box is actually full of pots and pans. You won’t.

 

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Many homes in the Greater Vancouver area built before 1957 were originally heated with furnace oil. When natural gas became available, the oil storage tanks, which were normally located underground in backyards, were filled with sand or capped.

However, as these unused buried oil tanks start to corrode and rust, the remaining oil can leak out and flow onto the rest of the owner's property, the neighbour's property, storm sumps and waterways, resulting in contamination of soil and water. Apart from the negative financial impact on the market value of the property, the owner can face substantial legal liability under various statutes and bylaws for such contamination.

The BC Fire Code and bylaws of twelve municipalities (including the City of Vancouver) all essentially require that out-of-service underground oil storage tanks (USTs) be removed and that all contaminated soil must be removed and replaced with clean fill.

Exceptions

A very limited exception may be granted by the fire authority where the removal of the UST is impractical because it is located under a permanent structure or its removal would endanger the structural integrity of nearby buildings.

In that case, the owner would still have to render the UST "inert" in accordance with "good engineering practices." That would include arranging, at their own expense, for the remaining oil to be pumped out, for the tank to be filled with sand and all piping to be capped, as well as arranging for the removal of contaminated soil and replacing it with clean fill.

In addition, written verification of such work must be provided by a licensed contractor to the fire authority.

Responsibility for Removal

The responsibility for the removal of the UST and remediation of any contamination falls on the current property owner.

The costs of such removal can be high depending on how much remediation work is involved. However, if the UST is ignored and not dealt with promptly and correctly, the costs can be exponentially more.

In one case that was reported in 2008, an owner of a West Vancouver home, who bought the home in 2000 not apparently aware that there was a buried oil tank, had to spend close to $160,000 to remove 5,000 liters of contaminated fuel from a leaky home-heating oil tank that had not been used in 25 years!

Such cases are rare, but it does highlight the need to conduct due diligence when buying a home that may have an unused underground oil tank.

Contamination

In addition to the BC Fire Code and municipal by-law requirements, the owner may also be subject to the Environmental Management Act of BC if the concentration of the contaminants present in the soil or groundwater exceeds the allowable limits prescribed for residential properties and therefore meets the definition of a "contaminated site."

In that event, the owner can be ordered to undertake remediation of the property and neighbouring properties if the contamination has spread. It may be possible for the owner to recover some of the costs incurred from more culpable previous owners through a "cost recovery action" pursuant to the Environmental Management Act, but only if they can be found and have the resources to pay.

An owner or former owner may also be found liable under commonlaw nuisance for failing to take steps to prevent seepage of oil to neighbouring properties.

Seller's Obligations

The seller normally will provide a prospective buyer with the Property Disclosure Statement ("PDS") that requires disclosure of a number of potential defects, including the presence of an underground oil tank. If the seller declares that the property does not to their knowledge contain an UST and/or is not contaminated, which later proves incorrect, the seller can be liable for negligent misstatement.

Moreover, if the PDS is expressly stated to form part of the contract and there is an unqualified statement that there is no UST, then this becomes an actual warranty, so that if a buried oil tank is discovered on the property the seller will be liable for breach of contract.

Similarly, if the seller states expressly in the contract that there is no contamination at the property, the seller will be contractually liable to the buyer if contamination is discovered. As well, the courts have held that sellers have a duty to disclose a latent defect that could be dangerous or a hazard to human health, and failure to do so may well make them liable to the buyer for damages sustained as a result of their failure to warn.

In summary, if there is an UST, then the seller should be advised to disclose this fact to the buyer and ensure their representations are accurate. The seller can then go ahead and arrange for a qualified tank removal contractor to remove the UST and clean up any oil contamination in accordance with all permits and applicable statutes, bylaws and the BC Fire Code, and provide sufficient written proof to the buyer prior to completion.

Alternatively, if the seller does not have the money to do this, they could try to negotiate a price reduction in exchange for a release and indemnity from the buyer with respect to the UST and remediation of any contamination. However, the seller can still remain liable under the EMA and the buyer may not be able to agree to this because of the requirements of their insurer and lender, who will want the UST and any resultant contamination issues dealt with prior to completion before funds are committed.

What Can Buyers Do to Protect Themselves?

If there is a suspicion that there may be an UST and the seller will not or can not confirm either way, the buyer should be advised to make the offer subject to a satisfactory inspection that satisfies the buyer there is no buried oil tank and that the property is not a contaminated site.

It would be prudent to engage the services of a specialized UST inspector to conduct a magnetic survey to detect an UST and then, if located, the integrity of the tank can be examined and surrounding soil can be checked for the presence of contaminants.

The buyer should also put in another condition precedent into the contract that if there is an UST, the offer is subject to the seller arranging, at their own expense, for the UST to be drained and removed and for the soil and groundwater to be assessed for contamination and, if contaminated, the seller will ensure the soil and groundwater is fully remediated in compliance with all applicable statute, bylaw and BC Fire Code requirements.

The contract should also provide that it is a fundamental term of the contract that all the work will be done by a qualified tank removal contractor and that the seller shall provide to the buyer on or before the completion date all necessary written certificates and reports from the tank removal contractor and the fire authority that all work was completed in compliance with the applicable statutes, bylaws and BC Fire Code.

A buyer should be strongly advised, even in the face of competing offers for a property, to not remove any conditions without the UST and remediation work having been completed properly by the seller. Similarly, the buyer should not agree to take on the responsibility of the removal of the UST and the remediation of any contamination in exchange for a price reduction without fully realizing the potential liability that would ensue upon becoming the new owner.

Insurance Issues

As insurance companies are worried about the potential impact and expense of any environmental contamination caused by a leaking corroded oil tank, it is very hard to obtain home insurance for homes which have an exterior oil tank older than 15 years. Even if home insurance is obtained, there will undoubtedly be a leakage/pollution exclusion which would make the property owner bear the full costs of such an event. Another scenario may be that as a condition of providing insurance the owner must remove the oil tank within 30 days of the policy being issued, which again will result in a big cost for the owner to pay.

Also, an owner will not be able to obtain financial protection from a residential title insurance policy as the policy will have exclusion for any environmental damage, including that caused by a leaking oil tank, even if the owner had no idea the oil tank was there.

Financing Issues

For residential transactions concerning a known UST, the lender will normally insist, before approving any funding commitment, that the buried oil tank be removed in accordance with the applicable statutes, bylaws and BC Fire Code and for the soil to be tested for contamination and remediated as necessary.

In such a situation, a prospective buyer should not remove any financing condition until they receive written confirmation that the lender has approved of the UST removal and remediation process, is satisfied with all required reports issued by the tank removal contractor and is still prepared to provide mortgage financing for the purchase.

Underground Oil Tank Removal Process

Property owners should always hire an experienced and qualified contractor in oil tank removal. If an underground oil tank is found and has to be removed, then, upon obtaining a tank removal permit from the applicable municipal fire authority.

• The remaining oil has to be pumped out and taken to an approved recycling/disposal facility;
• The UST must be removed;
• The soil must be assessed for contamination. If contamination is present, soil and groundwater must be properly remediated, which may include complete removal; and
• The property owner must obtain a report, and photos, from the tank removal company, detailing the removal process, what was pumped out of the UST, a receipt from the facility where the UST was taken to and the amount of soil brought in. The report should confirm that the UST was removed in accordance with all applicable statutes, bylaws and the BC Fire Code and, in the event of contamination, that the soil and groundwater have been remediated in accordance with the standards prescribed in the EMA and further testing is not necessary. This report can then be provided to prospective buyers in the future as evidence that the UST has been dealt with.

Source: REW.ca