Even the roof...?

July 28 - Three Rivers Inspection determined missing and damaged shingles, plywood was warped and some shingles are curled at 211 Hunt Road.

It was also determined the garage roof will need to be replaced in very near term; house roof likewise deteriorating.

Next, Dave and Joe, contractors from Mr. Handyman, strongly advise complete roof replacement as shingles are about to fail. 

November 9 - The roof leaks above the entryway during a rainstorm. Lorri and Lisa are again advised to replace the roof to avoid further harm to the ceiling and floors.  At bare minimum, the light fixture that the Exlers placed in the entryway -- presumably to cover up the prior ceiling leak that they were too cheap to repair -- must be removed for safety.  Given the weakness in the ceiling, the light could have fallen down and killed someone.  Or the electrical wires mixed with the leaking water could have killed us.  Not that safety was a concern for our sellers or "our" alleged real estate agent, Roslyn Neiman, from all the evidence.

Please learn about signs of roof failure before you buy a house, and learn about fraud in covering up damage. Here's an article that can help.

We are not made of money! 

Thanks (for nothing) Roz!!

And then there were the trees...

August 31 - Lorri and Lisa left a message for the Exlers' landscaper, Dean Aleprete, indicating they were aware he had worked at the property in the past and would like him to do additional work. He did not return the call.  Numerous repeated attempts also fail, until one day Dean is reached by surprise and he says, "I'm not allowed to talk to you people."  And hangs up the phone.

October 6 - An arborist visits 211 Hunt Road to determine why nearly all of the trees are dead or dying. He is dismayed to find that the Exlers failed to properly maintain any facet of the landscaping and concludes that most of the trees have been choked by vines that could easily have been cut down at ground level. He estimates it will take 4 days’ labor to prune, cut the vines, and remove the dead trees. Also, to prevent soil erosion and protect the natural habitat, it will be necessary to replant in the spring.  Vines kill trees.  Don't let this happen to yours.

As if the additional money weren't enough, they killed the trees! 

Thanks Roz!!

Electric Avenue

Upon complete home inspection July 28, Three Rivers Inspection determined that there was significant electrical damage. August 5, John Pappas meets to assess various wiring problems, including two bare wires hanging from the master bedroom wall where built in items had been removed contrary to the terms of the sale. 

November 1 - Lorri and  Lisa purchase exterior lights to replace those improperly installed, now exposed and fraying, presumably by the Exlers.

November 15 -- Dave with Mr. Handyman (yep, another contractor) advises Lorri and Lisa to hire an electrician immediately to take care of hanging electrical cords in the basement (one of which is 220V).  Yes, we could have been killed, especially given the vast water leakage in the basement combined with the exposed wires.

Residential electrical problems can be both costly and dangerous -- here's a quick guide to diagnosing problems and figuring out who to hire to help you.

December 19 - The heat ceases to function on the second floor. Waldron Electric sends a technician who performs diagnostic test. Visit/Diagnostic: $535, Estimated replacement cost: $4800.  December 20, technician from Beverly Heating is sent by warranty company, then second technician is sent by Beverly Heating.  Merry Christmas. 

Thanks Roz!!

Mouse House

July 28 - After Three Rivers Inspection completes its work, they report a mouse infestation at 211 Hunt Road. Quality Pest Services returns and discovers evidence of severe mouse infestation, advising it be treated immediately. Brian recommends that traps be placed in the storage room, the basement, the ceilings, and the attic.  There is rodent feces spread over most flat surfaces in the basement, for starters, something else that the Exlers covered up when we viewed the house (or any prospective buyers visited, apparently).

Just one of the many corners filled with mouse dirt in our $800,000 house.

July 30 - Russ Kowalik, of Three Rivers Inspection, informs Lorri and Lisa of a severe mouse infestation in the basement.

August 3 - Mark Rabe from Quality Pest Control returns to treat the mouse infestation, describing it as “very heavy” and using 27 bait traps.  A comparable space with a moderate problem would typically require six traps.  Mark also uses liquid pesticide and dust pesticide, recommends that professionals vacuum pervasive mouse droppings, as they cannot be removed without goggles, respirators and other suitable protective gear.  Lorri asks if it is possible for someone to have lived here and not been aware of infestation, to which the exterminator shook his head and offered a definitive, “No way.”

August 10 - While  cleaning, Lisa finds increased mouse activity in the basement and the attic. 

August 11 - Lorri and Lisa discuss with Emilio, owner of landscaping/general home repair company, removing mouse droppings in the basement to make it usable. Given the extent of the problem, they conclude that the ceiling tiles, the walls, and all flat surfaces between paneling and foundation wall will need to be removed.  This is dangerous work, because mouse droppings (not to mention dead rodents themselves) contain various bacteria and virus, some of them threatening to human life, including the deadly hantavirus.  

If you have a mouse infestation or extensive mouse droppings in your house, please get professional exterminators to deal with it.  Here's a page from Orkin on the dangers of mouse droppings and how to deal with an infestation. 

Not to be gross, but here's what mouse droppings look like close-up, so you can recognize them if you have this problem.

August 12 - Architect Todd Swann and his parter, Stuart, visit to discuss how to proceed. Both emphasized the need to deal with health and safety issues immediately, including the mouse infestation.

August 13 - Emilio and crew arrive and begin demolishing the basement. Numerous mouse traps of recent vintage are located in the walls and ceiling and dried mouse remains are found in the storage area. More bait packs, mouse traps, and mouse remains are uncovered August 14 when the crew returns. 

While another crew is demolishing the unsafe kitchen on October 1, a dead mouse was found behind the refrigerator and mouse droppings are found along the wall adjacent to the mud room.   As yet another contractor (yes, we had LOTS of contractors) is tearing out the flooring several months later , he uncovers still more evidence of mouse infestation behind the refrigerator and in other locations. November 8, Lisa pulls out an entire mouse corpse from the gap between the floor and wall where the refrigerator had been. 

We'll spare you the pictures of the literally dozens and dozens of dead mouse corpses.  Believe me, you don't want to see these things.  Certainly, our sellers and "our" real estate agent didn't want us to see any of this -- and they worked extra special hard to make sure we didn't.

There is a mouse — or maybe hundreds — in the house! 

Thanks Roz!!

The Permanent Basketball Hoop

During a phone conversation on June 29, Mark Exler explained he will likely be unable to remove the basketball hoop from outside the garage before closing on 211 Hunt Road as he had promised to do. He allows that Lorri and Lisa can remove it themselves after closing, otherwise he will “try to get someone out there to take it down eventually.” 

Said basketball hoop turns out to be a professional-grade steel beam structure mounted to the driveway with bolts driven into the ground.   Most folks say you need a backhoe to tear this thing out of the ground.

Gee, I wonder how much time, effort, and money it will cost to have this removed?

Thanks Roz!!  And thanks, Mark.  You’re a prince of a guy.  (Well, not so much…)

The Dreaded Stucco Saga

One of our concerns when making the decision on purchasing the home at 211 Hunt Road, was the exterior cladding in EIFS — short for “Exterior Insulation and Finish System” — a faux stucco material manufactured by Dryvit that is known to be problematic if improperly applied and has been the subject of much litigation.  How bad is EIFS?  So bad that, according to this online forum for contractors, people can’t even get homeowner’s insurance now for a house that has it installed.  "Is Dryvit dead???" one of them asks.  And another responds:  "Dryvit has been plagued by water penetration issues. It is very rare that the installer detailed the flashing properly so it's not uncommon to find moldy, rotten walls lurking under the surface.”  

Yep, true enough — and that’s exactly what happened to us.  And every bit of evidence we uncovered suggested strongly that the sellers knew it and covered it up, that our so-called real estate agent knew it and helped them, and multiple contractors knew it…. The only ones that didn’t know it was us.  

Failed fake stucco looks like this, when it's not being hidden.  (Representative photo.)

And it leads to structural rot that looks like this.  THIS IS AN ACTUAL PICTURE OF THE ROT WE BOUGHT.
Cleverly hidden by Mark and Robin Exler, the sellers,
along with (in our educated opinion) the assistance of "our" real estate agent,
Roslyn Neiman of Howard Hanna Real Estate.

Here's some more mold and rot we didn't want but got.

If you're considering a house whose siding consists of artificial stucco of any kind, please be careful, and don't let anyone talk you out of it when you raise objections -- that's what happened to us.  And despite what Roz and the sellers said, EIFS is in fact NOT "really good exterior siding."  In a word, it sucks.  

Here’s a recap of how we got snookered into buying a house with failed EIFS siding atop the (cleverly concealed) rotten, moldy walls underneath.

June 23, EIFS inspection performed by Scott Brown of HouseMaster at buyer’s expense. 

Roz, our so-called advocate and agent, promises to stop by to make sure things are going okay for us, since we can't be there ourselves.  She does, and reports to us that "all is well."  What she doesn't tell us is that, while she was there, she actually instructed our inspector to stop performing standard tests to evaluate potential moisture problems, the soundness of the siding and the substrate underneath.  We would only learn this months later, after we were already stuck with the lousy stucco and a moldy rotting house.

Later that same day, Mark Exler phones HouseMaster rudely and obnoxiously demanding a copy of the inspection report that has not yet been prepared, and is not his property in any event.  He yells, screams, berates and hangs up on Kim, the receptionist, accusing her of incompetence and impropriety (his logic evidently being that since the inspected house was his, so was a report prepared at someone else’s expense.)  In retrospect, it seems very clear to us that Exler was trying to control for anything that might expose his lying and fraud, trying to get to any potential damaging information before we did.  Of course, what we believe to be the collusion between the Exlers and Roz Neiman kept any such truth from being included in the report -- because they prevented the tests from being performed!

June 24 – EIFS inspection report is issued. The buyers contact Moisture Warranty Corporation (MWC) to request an accelerated estimate of repair costs. Beyond speaking to George Kalanish, Mark Exler’s “stucco guy”, who is not certified by MWC to perform the necessary repairs, Exler apparently does nothing in furtherance of his obligation of “procure” the warranty for which Lorri and Lisa had agreed to pay after he reneged on his promise to pay for and procure it as an inducement to the offer.

June 21-24 - In a discussion of stucco warranty issues, Roz reminds Lorri and Lisa that Mark has applied new stucco to “almost all” of the EIFS areas of the home, except for “one small corner.” She noted in passing that Mark had recently mentioned something about replacing “quite a bit” of wood framing due to water damage beneath he EIFS, but the problem had been fully redressed. 

Neither this damage nor its repair is included on the seller disclosure form, nor had Lorri and Lisa heard anything about any wood rot until after they had signed on the dotted line. In a burst of rapid-fire speech, Roz utters the words “new addition” and “older” parts of the house, the implications of which did not fully register as Lorri and Lisa were furiously packing for their move. Nothing else was said on the subject until July 2, when they asked Roz if there was an addition to the house. She replied she did not know, but could find out. She followed up by saying she asked Mark Exler, but he did not know either. That was the last they heard on the subject.

June 26 - George Kalanish contacts Scott Brown, EIFS inspector, to discuss repairs necessary to secure the home warranty. During the conversation, it becomes apparent that George expects he will be making the repairs himself, despite the fact he is not certified by MWC. He expresses nothing but disdain for these "newfangled" application methods, explaining that he has been doing this for 30 years, knows the house, and knows best what is required. Scott explains this is not in keeping with the warranty. Underwriters require repairs be done according to very precise specifications.  Scott asks George to hold off doing any work until the issue is addressed by the buyers in consultation with MWC.

July 8 - Mark Exler states that George will be arriving the next morning at 8 am to do his part of the stucco estimate. Lorri and Lisa arrange for a representative of MWC to speak with him about it that afternoon.  However, on July 9, Lorri walks to the garage to hear George shouting at Mark.  George declines to proceed with the estimate and angrily drives away.

July 12 - Mark Exler retreats from negotiations and his lawyer (a fellow with questionable ethical values, in our opinion) Jonathan Kamin looks for a compromise by which Exler would allot $18K for stucco repairs. No estimate for stucco repairs has been forthcoming. George has contacted the stucco warranty company, but allows he has never heard of the materials, has no knowledge of the method of installation, or the water drainage devices (sill pans or drain pans) that the warranty company expects to be placed under the windows of the home before a warranty can be issued.

August 12 - Architect Todd Swann and partner Stuart, visited to determine best way to proceed in an efficient and cost effective manner. Stuart immediately notes problems with EIFS installation, referring to the application around the front door as “a bad advertisement” for the material.

Scott Brown performs follow-up EIFS inspection and shares information with Lorri and Lisa, and this information knocks them off their feet. He reports a call from Exler prior to closing wherein he was treated to a stream of invective regarding his stucco report. He reports a conversation with George Kalanish earlier in the summer in which George said Exler had only done a portion of the repairs needed and had never paid him for repairs done several years prior. Scott has considerable respect for George, stating he has been around this business long enough to know he has to protect himself first (from a client like Exler). They also learn for the first time that Exler forbade Scott Brown from entering the home at any point during his inspection, and that Roslyn Neiman -- our ever so (very not) helpful "agent" -- participated in keeping the inspector out of the house on the day of the so-called inspection. 

August 24 - During a conversation with George Kalanish, he shared he had done extensive repairs to the EIFS 6-7 years ago as it had been "improperly installed." Repairs took two months, he said, and he didn’t do everything required because Exler didn’t want to pay for it.  When Lisa refers to concealed damage in the house, George states, “Exler bought the house damaged” (and notes that damage was also supposedly concealed from him). After admitting he was not allowed to talk to “you people”, and being asked why, he stated “it had something to do with the real estate people.” 

August 29 - George Kalanish fails to show up for our 12 pm appointment to discuss prior stucco repairs. 

The cover-up continues.  Hey, thanks Roz!

The sewer lateral . . .

Lorri and Lisa, eagerly anticipating closing on the purchase of their first home, pack up and vacate their apartment in New York for the big move to Pittsburgh to help their mothers...  

The timeline is tight -- they have just a few days turnaround time to get to Pittsburgh, close the sale, and await the multiple moving vans that are bringing all their belongings to their new home.  They have nowhere to live until the house sale is closed, so they stay in a hotel for what they expect to be less than a week, with the closing scheduled for July 1.  

But then... a funny thing happened on the way to the closing... 

And that funny thing is called a "sewer lateral" problem.

The "sewer lateral" is what connects the plumbing in the house to the public plumbing at the street or road.
In this case, the road was two acres away from the house.
Which means that two acres of lawn had to be ripped up to fix the problem.

June 24 ... Seller Mark Exler contacts Steve Orlando, of Orlando Plumbing, for an estimate on sewer repairs at 211 Hunt Road. Roz informs Lorri and Lisa that Mark is upset, once again, about the anticipated cost of this repair ($16K) but says that he will pay it and have the work done promptly as per well-known Fox Chapel Borough regulations -- or at least they're well-known to people who already live in Fox Chapel, like the Exlers. Not so much to newcomers like Lorri and Lisa.

No mention is made of the extent or the scope of the requisite work, which Roz dismissed as a pricey annoyance to be dealt with by Exler, not the buyers.

June 27 ... Mark Exler obtains a written estimate from Orlando Plumbing for completion of the sewer work.  That's right -- 3 days after Lorri and Lisa were informed of the repair estimate and just 4 days prior to their anticipated closing, the Exlers and their friend Roz were just getting around to the written estimate... No repairs started, no date planned.

June 29 ... Exler phones Lorri and they have a brief, reasonably pleasant chat. While he admits to a slight delay in the completion of the required sewer work, at no time does he acknowledge either the extent of the work, or the ways in which that would alter the face of the property (which, as it turned out, would entail digging up roughly 2 acres of ground and part of the basement in order to replace 350 feet of terra cotta pipe). 

This is what it looks like when they dig up your front lawn.
(Representative, not actual, picture of Hunt Road property.)  But that's pretty much what it looked like.

June 30 ... Lorri and Lisa obtain the mortgage commitment and are prepared to close as scheduled. However, on July 1, in the course of their appointment with the mortgage broker, they learn that the sewer work has not even begun and will not be done prior to closing, despite it being a contingency of the sale. In order to close at all, Fox Chapel Borough requires that repairs either be completed and inspected or that buyers assume unlimited liability for any and all costs associated with their completion.

And so, Lorri and Lisa are suddenly presented with an escrow agreement that Roz and the Exlers presume they will sign, accepting the aforementioned undisclosed conditions. They are flabbergasted, and with the mortgage broker's subtle encouragement, refuse to sign.

According to Roz, Lorri and Lisa are being unreasonable, making a big deal out of nothing. "Exler is good to his word," she says, and will surely place sufficient funds in escrow to cover the complete (but also completely unknown) actual costs -- beyond which, everyone knows about the sewer lateral agreement! (Except people like Lorri and Lisa who are coming from out of state, have never lived in Fox Chapel, and have never heard the words "sewer lateral" prior to this moment.)  

As Roz so helpfully put it, "well, everyone signs it." The mere fact that something supposedly so ordinary was at no time mentioned to Lorri and Lisa by Roz rouses their suspicions, but they try to proceed in good faith.

July 12 ... during negotiations, Lorri and Lisa are informed the sewer work is "essentially" (finally!) completed and the necessary borough approvals issued. All that remains to be done, they're told, is reseeding of the lawn on the acres of ground torn up for the trench.

During all this, Lorri and Lisa are forced to live out of a hotel room (a large and unexpected expense) with their two cats ... waiting and waiting and waiting ... for Roz Neiman, and Mark Exler, and his wife Robin Exler, to finally make good on what they promised to do, and to deliver the house that Lorri and Lisa have purchased.

But guess what?  Upon entering the house after closing on July 21 -- yes, that's right, the closing that was supposed to have happened three weeks earlier -- Lorri and Lisa discovered the sewer work had actually not been completed at all, since the basement was not restored to its previous condition, and the earth was torn up all around the house and down the lawn, all the way to the road.  The place was, in short, a mess.  This is not the house or the property they were paying for, and Lorri and Lisa are very upset.

Later, Lisa notices that the sewer work closest to the house again shows signs of sinking.

Roz says it's nothing to worry about, and that the sewer lateral work is just fine...

So why did it smell so bad and keep sinking and all that?

Stinky, Costly Sewer - Thanks, Roz!!