HELP! To stay or back out of deal???
We are under contract on an over/under duplex and in a sticky situation... I need help! So, we were supposed to close on this property Friday Sept 4th. However, closing was pushed back maybe a week or so according to the bank (their problem, they couldn't get it ready in time and lots of closings were delayed).
The sellers signed an early occupancy agreement so we moved our stuff in this past week on Tuesday (we had moved it from out of state and in a uhaul and did not want to have to move it out of the uhaul and into another storage unit only to move it again or pay to keep the uhaul a long time until we closed and were able to move it in). So they let us move our stuff in the vacant unit early. Now that closing is pushed for at least another week or so, its a little tricky because we are living here, but it's not technically "ours" yet.
We moved out of the apartment we were renting yesterday and stayed out first night in this "soon to be ours" duplex. We are house-hacking and living in the lower level with an established tenant upstairs who is great.
The problem--- we stayed here for the first time last night and used the shower. Water began leaking from under the trim around the wall which encloses the shower piping (they did some updates to this unit before selling, but things appear very cheap, not done professionally and pretty much used peel and stick everything). I was able to access the panel behind the shower head/faucet from the opposite wall in the hallway and see there is water leaking from the pipes, very rusted material and it does not look pretty.
This is not even technically our home yet and I have no clue what to do- I hate even using the shower knowing there is a leak. This could be very spendy to fix, and I feel like I can't even call a plumber to come take a look because it isn't even our house! We love the layout and location of this duplex, it is in pretty good shape (or so appeared to be) other than some cosmetic things they did a cheap job updating. The house DOES make sense with the numbers being where they are now, but not with a potential huge thing to fix right away. The seller was so upset about the closing being delayed he wanted to call the whole thing off anyway and has been a huge pain to deal with the whole time- its a FSBO and its been a nightmare from day 1. Maybe this is our chance to get out before signing the papers and yes, lose our earnest money, but take it as a loss and move on, knowing we dodged a bullet??? I need all the help I can get and FAST- I have no idea what to do.
Thank you guys!