The Dangers of a Hidden Oil Tank - Is One On Your Property?

Well good afternoon everybody my name is Chris Berger and it’s time for Berger Point.

You know one of my favorite things to discover is how a house is being heated whether it’s gas, electric, or oil.

So, you sort of search around you look at the listing and in this particular listing that the two buyers I was going with it was heated by natural gas.

A big win because natural gas is of course, supported by the town and it’s piped into the home. You can monitor the cost easily because you can see the monthly cost and what it’s going to cost you quarterly, so you can put it in the budget.

However, as we were walking around the house, I spotted an intake pipe for an oil tank.

Well, I kind of figured it was abandoned and I was going to speak to the listing agent about it.

Because the problem with an abandoned oil tank is that once that home is sold, the buyer, who I was representing, is now completely responsible for any damage that oil tank may or may have not caused. So how do you remedy it?

Well, one of the things that you can do is that you can drill down and check the soil and have it analyzed to see if there’s any leakage.

So, if that comes back clean, then generally you are in the clear.

The other thing, of course, is to actually have a company come in and they do this and they remove the oil tank.

So after speaking with the agent, we’re now going to decide what to do.

However, I want to show you what I mean by the tank and the oil pipe.

You know, when you see this set up, it’s definitely natural gas.

And that’s how the heat is programmed.

However, we were walking around in the backyard. And I do have to speak to the realtor about this. But right here is an oil tank fill.

So is the oil tank still in the ground? Is it disclosed?

And I will check it out. But that’s what you look for.

That’s my point.

You know, my daughter gave me this great hat. It says, God only knows.

And of course, there’s a cancer symbol on there. And as well as a heart symbol.

So that covers a lot of people that we have lost.

So thank you to my daughter once again, and God Only Knows, which is of course a great Beach Boys song.