Call Kurtis: In Too Deep

The County came out to inspect the property before Sholeh Karimi and Sasan Behinayin bought the home.  But they didn't find the tanks until after the deal went through.  So who's responsible here?

"This was supposed to be our dream house," says Sholeh.

But the dream home they bought in 2008 came with two very big problems; two rusted old tanks that once carried fuel.

"When we were buying this house, we were not aware of a tank," says Sasan.

Before closing on the home the county came to look into a complaint it received about a container of oil, buried on the property.  Their real estate agent said there was nothing to worry about, since that's what the selling agent told him.

According to the County's Incident Report the technician noticed two pipes sticking out of the ground.  But it said the inspection "failed to reveal any evidence of a buried drum" and "no further action" is needed.

"If the technician couldn't find anything, well, he's the expert here.  So if there's nothing then there's nothing and it was only a rumor," says Sholeh.

They bought the home.  But a couple weeks later, a Sacramento County inspector returned after getting a second complaint.  He took photos of the same exact pipes seen in the first inspection.  The inspector determined the pipes lead to two underground tanks that are a threat to groundwater.  The county is now holding Sholeh and Sasan responsible for removing them.

"I was crying for a couple of days because, like, we were shocked," says Sholeh.

They couple had the tanks dug up.  One is now lying on the lawn and the other is exposed in a ditch.  But the county stopped them, saying they needed a permit, and someone with a special license to finish the job, which will cost as much as $23,000.

"If we could walk away, if we did not have any down payment in this house, I would walk away," says Sasan.

The couple doesn't understand how a Sacramento County inspector missed the tanks during that first inspection.  The County tells us they weren't looking for tanks because the first complaint was only about drums.

"It's very different.  Buried drums, there's soil turned over, there's mounds of soil, there's earth showing, that type of thing.  Underground storage tanks are not associated with that type of thing," says Elise Rothschild, of Sacramento County's Environmental Management Department's Environmental Compliance Division.

But what about those pipes sticking out of the ground?  Shouldn't the county have done a better job inspecting those?  The county doesn't think so.

"I think we have done what we are required to do," says Rothschild.

The home was a foreclosure and the couple didn't pay for an independent home inspection before buying the place, which may have alerted them to the tanks.

"You need to use extra due diligence when buying a property that's been bank owned.  You're not going to get the same level of disclosure that was required in a real estate transaction where you have a regular seller occupy the property," says Tom Pool of the California Department of Real Estate.

The law says the selling agent must do a visual inspection of the property and notify the buyers of any issues.  The couple and their real estate agent insist nobody ever said anything about those pipes.  When we called the selling agent, he pointed to that first County inspection which said no further action was needed.  So he admits he didn't say anything.

For now, Sholeh and Sasan are weighing their options, including legal action.  And the big yard they hoped to use for gardening sits empty.

"I absolutely don't look at that part of the house.  I deal with the front," says Sholeh.

The county did give the couple a deadline to get those tanks removed but is being lenient with them.

As to how the tanks got there in the first place, we've heard a diesel mechanic who used to live there installed them in the 1960s or 1970s.  Sacramento County tells us laws requiring people to notify the government about underground storage tanks didn't go into effect until the 1980s.