‘My fiance and I got royally screwed over’: Homeowner buys after house passes inspection. Then they go into the basement

A homeowner says she bought a house that passed inspection. She isn't sure how after looking in the basement.

TikTok user Courtney (@creneef) recently posted video on the subject, which has amassed over 16,000 views. In the caption, she writes, “Homebuyer’s nightmare.”

To begin, Courtney says that she and her husband were “royally screwed over” when buying their first home together a year prior. She addresses that she chose to bring her story to TikTok as she doesn’t want this to happen to any other first-time home buyers.

House passes inspection

“It is so stressful,” she says, adding, “It has been a year from [expletive].”

First, Courtney tells viewers that she and her husband were the first people to tour this house after it had been put on the market last year. She says they immediately “fell in love with it” and put in an offer, an asking price, and asked to pay the closing costs. “We want nothing additional, we’re gonna put down 35%,” she adds. “We had a pretty great offer.”

Courtney says their only requirement before buying was to make sure the home inspection came back clear. “We had the home inspected, it passed with flying colors,” she says. 

However, she says the seller told them that he needed a few months before he could move out because he was building a separate home to move into. She adds that he was basically hinting that he needed to stay in the home as long as they would let him. 

“We gave him close to two months,” she says. Once the seller moved out of the house, she says they showed up to the property within a half hour of him leaving because they were so excited to move in. 

The 'homebuyer's nightmare'

Unfortunately, the problems started as soon as they entered the house. “We walk in and we’re like dang, it’s hot as balls in here,” she says. “It was 83 degrees.” First, she says they tried turning on the air conditioning, but it didn’t work. Then, she says they checked the breakers and tried turning the heat on. That didn’t work either.

“I’m like, what the [expletive],” Courtney says. Her next choice was to call her friend Zach who she thought would be able to help fix the air unit. “I can’t figure out what’s going on,” she says Zach told her.

Courtney says Zach went to the basement to further investigate why the problem occurred before asking, “Um… Do you know this house has had a fire?” 

“Like, did they disclose that to you?” she says he added. Baffled, Courtney tells Zach that she hadn’t heard any mention of a fire.

Ramifications from an undisclosed fire

She further explains to viewers that the basement in her home is spray painted black because it’s unfinished. “They just spray painted everything black on the ceiling, and it looks appealing for an unfinished basement,” she says, “but they did that [expletive] to cover up the char.” 

“We were not told this house had had a fire,” she continued. “There’s so much char on the ceiling.”

Next she says the group moved back upstairs to check what else the fire could have damaged. “We're feeling around in the kitchen like right above where the fire was, and the floor in the kitchen is so weak that it has to be ripped out and fixed,” she says. 

Courtney says they decided to call HVAC to the home and quickly found out that “they have not had heater air for a while and this had been out for quite some time.” She next asked her realtor to talk to the seller, however she says they were met with a response of “that isn’t my responsibility.” 

Viewers offer home-buying advice

“We’re like whatever, it wasn’t that expensive,” so they chose to go ahead and pay the HVAC employee to fix the air unit. 

Three to four days after fixing the unit, Courtney says her town got hit with super hard rain. “There’s water all in the basement,” she says, “I’m like, what the [expletive].” She also discovered a broken toilet upstairs, and needed a plumber to resolve both issues.

“The plumber tells us that he had been to this house prior to fix a water leak, and the guy that we bought from, bought this house so he could flip it cheap to sell it,” Courtney explains. “We got some [expletive] story that he was going through a divorce.” 

In the comments section, a user recommended taking legal action. They wrote, “As an agent…get a lawyer now. That’s why there’s a disclosure form. They KNEW it was a fire.”

“Home inspections aren’t Pass/Fail. I would however like to see the report if you’ve got it,” another user said.

Can homes 'fail' an inspection?

According to Key Inspection Services, homes can't technically fail an inspection. “As a matter of fact, homes can’t actually 'fail,'" the article states. "There is no grading or pass/fail system. The home inspector simply assesses the condition and quality of the home objectively—and both the buyer and seller are informed about these findings.”

In Courtney’s case, Key Inspection says “if a serious problem is found, the seller may be responsible for fixing it before the home can be legally sold.”

“I know everyone is saying it’s the inspector’s fault… But nothing you’re saying makes me ever want to purchase a home,” another user mentioned.

@creneef Homebuyer’s nightmare???? #firsthome #homebuyer #homerenovation ♬ original sound - Courtney

The Daily Dot reached out to request a comment from Courtney via the TikTok comment section and email. 

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