Tank inspections in San Francisco
A reader asks:People I know bought a house in San Francisco recently. and were told they had to have a "tank inspection". This sounds a little strange to me. Is this a scam or something normal when buying real estate anywhere?
Our reply:
Well, I don't know about anywhere else, but in San Francisco there was a city ordinance passed about 15-20 years ago that made it the responsibility of homeowners to remove an underground storage tank (used for storing heating oil and gasoline for emergency generators) if they discovered they had one. Not every property in San Francisco had one but many large houses and apartment buildings did.
The reason this is such a big deal is because about 15-20 years ago (you think this is why the city ordinance was passed?) a developer in San Francisco lost his house to the bank. After the bank foreclosed on it, it was discovered that this large, remodeled, view home in Pacific Heights had an underground storage tank which had leaked all the way down the steep hill... costing the bank hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up!!!
Now lenders usually require that the buyers make the sellers have an inspection before they will lend on properties in San Francisco , and if a tank is found they must have it removed before close of escrow. Quite often if a property has been sold previously a tank inspection will already have been done. So the inspection is an important document to keep in the file for resale. If this document is lost, Golden Gate Tank Removal does the majority of tank inspections and removals and may have a report on file for any given property.
- Janis Stone
posted by SFResidence.com @ 6:58 AM
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