Inspection Visit

I visited my vacant house with the property manager yesterday and became aware of two issues that could be potentially serious.

The tenant's departure notes reported odors coming from the septic system, and she stated that the school next door had been complaining.  This was news to me and it was the first that the property manager had heard about it.  The problem is that I spent about $12,000 to replace the septic system about 2 years ago while I was still sailing.  It is supposed to be a modern 2-tank system conforming to current codes.  I didn't like the way the system had been installed, with its long pipe run along the side of the house across the front, and to near the mulberry tree.  Had I been present I would have insisted that the new system be located over the old one, not far from the bathroom and toilet.  I now have to find out if there is a long-term problem with the new system.

The other problem is potentially more serious.  The house is built on the side of a sloping hill on a layer of clay about 5 meters deep which rests on granite rock.  The clay is "reactive" clay, which means that it swells and shrinks according to its moisture content.  Were the house on a flat piece of land it would tend to float up and down evenly through the wet and dry seasons, but being sited on a hill means that there is little or no clay below the uphill side of the house and plenty of clay below the downhill side, resulting in uneven movements along the foundation. 

There is evidence of soil subsidence along 1/3 of the house.  The back door frame is distorted enough to keep one of its doors from closing, and there are cracks on the wall panels in the two bedrooms along the side of the house.  After thinking about it overnight I've concluded that digging the trench along the side of the house for the drain of the new septic system must have been a big contributor to the problem.  The situation as things stand (literally) is tolerable, given that I plan to reline the internal walls of the bedrooms and can easily plane the top of the door.  The amount of distortion is relatively small considering that the house has stood for 65 years since 1948.  But the big question is whether the subsidence was a "one off" or will continue at an accelerated pace, because continuation of serious soil subsidence will be a "show stopper" for any plans that I have to salvage the house.

The property manager will have one of their building-savvy contractors visit the house and make an assessment and she will also send out someone to check out the septic system.  In the meantime, I've been making contingency plans for bailing out of the house renovation project if the house is not salvagable.  It isn't as simple as putting the vacant house up for sale immediately given that the 3/4 property surrounding the house is in such bad shape and I have a garage full personal items to deal with. 

The bulk of the value of the property is in the land with its relatively large size (enough road frontage for 2 house numbers), pleasant valley views, and location of 100 meters from the centre of the village.  It would therefore make sense to put in the work to clean up the property by trimming and lopping 5 years of growth, removing dead plants and trees and branches on the ground, and doing some good mowing.  In that garage are all of my household and personal items, many hand tools, many power tools including a large 3-phase Lincoln welder capable of building a large steel boat (which I was planning to do at one time), and the BMW R1150R motor cycle that Arnold left behind.

I figure that it would take close to a year to make an orderly extrication from the house.  The best time to sell property in the Perth hills is during the springtime (i.e. this time of the year).  I would move back into the house as it is and during the next 6 months hold garage several garage sales disposing of just about everything inside.  Regardless, I'll get the BMW motorcycle running again, settle accounts with brother Arnold who paid for the machine, then decide on whether or not to keep it. Ideally I would put the property up for sale in about next July, when the winter rains have started and the terrain is green and lush again, with the property in good order and the garage empty.

But this is all speculative, and I hope that it doesn't come to that.

Even though the tenants have vacated the property I have been asked to delay taking possession until 2 October, to give the property manager time to deal with some outstanding issues with the tenants.  On my next visit to the house I will take photographs of the property for publishing in this blog.