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Khardiss

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Looking for suggestions on where/how to begin inspecting a partial plumbing system. Here's the story...

My father had always dreamed of building his own house from scratch. After he retired, he started to build it, but passed away before completing it. So, my brother and I are now the owners of a roughly 70% completed house. The house is not in a condition that we can rent it out, and my brother won't sell it unless he can get 'full value' for it ("but it's new-built house", yes dear brother, but it's an "incomplete new-built house"). To make matters worse, the house is Iowa, I live in Texas. My brother lives in the same city as the house, but has no desire to work on it (for emotional reasons; he and my father were very close and being at my dad's house dredges up lots of heartache for him). I'm only in the area a week or two a year, but want to work on the house to try to get it up to minimum standards to rent it out so we're getting a little income from it rather than just paying taxes on a building that's going to sit there until it falls down. There's a lot of work that needs to be done (honestly more than I can do in a week or two each year), but I'm hoping to recruit some of my brother's friends to help out.

The drywall is up, but not painted; flooring done, but no carpet yet; outside siding is up on 3 sides of the house (4th side is built up against a pre-existing building that needs to be torn down, but my father was using it as a storeroom for materials; so while "un-sided", it is at least protected from the elements); stove hood vent laying on the floor of the kitchen; etc. I know how to do most of this work, but I don't know much about plumbing (I've replaced toilets and the occasional burst water pipe, but that's about the end of my plumbing expertise).

The plumbing in the house is partially complete. In the bathroom, the toilet, sink, and bathtub are all installed and connected. You can use the toilet, but you have to pour water in from a nearby bucket for it to flush. So the outgoing sewer line is complete (honestly, I took my brother's word for this; I haven't "tested" it myself). There is no incoming water. We don't know if this is because it was never completed, or if it was simply never turned on by the city.

Where would I begin inspecting the plumbing system to determine what work I need to do to get it up and running? (I'm fairly certain the answer to this question is to hire a plumber or a building inspector to come look at it, but I'm hoping to get some suggestions on what I can try myself without having to pay someone else to do.)
 

Gary Swart

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Sounds like it's time for your brother to grow up and face facts. Tell him you are going to hire a contractor to finish the house. Then sell the house and brother gets half of the value. In other words, he pays for half of the finishing.
 

Themp

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Basically, you need to visit the house and do a complete visual inspection of everything. I assume your Dad had a permit for the house and had things inspected. You can look at that form and see what had passed. If no inspections were done, then you still need to get a handle on what is complete and what is not. If the house has a crawl space or basement things will be easier. If on a slab, then it gets harder. You stated drywall is up, but plumbing is not complete. That means you have to tear out drywall to finish plumbing? Is electrical done and a breaker box exists? Water heater, washer connection, outside hose bibs?

Finally, tell your brother that working on the house would honor your father's dream of building his own house. If he really was close to him, then he would want to finish it. But it could be that the house was something your brother felt was not necessary and was also responsible for his passing. My wife's grandfather retired and bought a farm, and the pressure of keeping it up and running killed him.
 

Bluebinky

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Sorry for your loss, man.

Having just gone through something similar, I can say that these things can take time to sort out. Finding someone to help with sorting out the plumbing shouldn't be a big deal in the scheme of things.

The most important thing is to stay on good terms with your brother. If he needs emotional support, give it to him. If he blows up at you, let it go. If you need to wait a year or whatever, so be it. As for the house, well ... if you and your brother start to fight, you may as well tear it down because the lawyers will eat up whatever its worth.
 

Khardiss

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Thanks for the feedback everyone.

"If he won't work on it, and you can only do it a couple of times a year, HIRE SOMEONE TO FINISH IT." This is what will most likely happen. I'm hoping to be able to do some work on it myself to save a few bucks down the road.

"I assume your Dad had a permit for the house and had things inspected." Yes, he had all the required permits. The city up there is a stickler about getting their money on EVERYTHING, he never would have been allowed to even start digging a hole without the correct permits.

"If the house has a crawl space or basement things will be easier." It has a big basement.

"You stated drywall is up, but plumbing is not complete" We *THINK* that the plumbing is done everywhere except maybe the basement (and then we aren't really sure, it *might* actually be completely finished and just never connected to city water). Pops wouldn't have put up the drywall unless he was done with everything behind the wall.

"Is electrical done and a breaker box exists? Water heater, washer connection, outside hose bibs?" Yep, that's all done. Except maybe the water heater. Now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing one anywhere (but honestly, I wasn't looking for one previously).

"The most important thing is to stay on good terms with your brother." Definitely! Pops actually passed away more than a year ago. The house has just been sitting unoccupied and unused since then. I've had enough time to move on emotionally to the point that I'm ready to do something with the house, but my brother just isn't there yet (as previously mentioned, my brother was much closer to my dad than I was). We won't let the status of the house come between us. I've let my brother know from the beginning that I consider the house to be his since he's the one that lives in the same town as it and has to deal with anything that happens with it (besides, I know that would have been my dad's wish even if he never would have said it to avoid hurting my feelings). I'm cool with whatever my brother decides to do with it. I just feel that the house should be making us a little money rather than costing us money to pay taxes on it.

I'll be heading back up to Iowa next month. I'll take a closer look at it then. I was mostly just kind of hoping for suggestions on what I should be looking for to determine the status of the plumbing.

And for those that feel my brother is just being immature, that's not it at all. They were really close. Best friends my brother's entire life. I didn't have the same relationship with my father that my brother did. It sounds bad, but it's true, my brother was his son, and I was the "other one" (this was an ongoing joke between EVERYONE that ever saw me, my brother, and my dad together). This bugged me growing up obviously, but I long ago made peace with it as an adult. My dad and I were on friendly terms, don't misunderstand, we loved each other, I just wasn't as close to him as my brother (my dad told once shortly before he died that he just didn't know how to connect with me as a child; my brother liked doing all the same stuff he did and I was just different than them; I feel he did his best trying though). I feel it's completely reasonable for my brother to not be in the right place emotionally to deal with this issue yet. (Wait, is this a DIY site or an emotional support group site? Sorry for sharing the 'feels'. :) )
 

Reach4

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I've let my brother know from the beginning that I consider the house to be his since he's the one that lives in the same town as it and has to deal with anything that happens with it (besides, I know that would have been my dad's wish even if he never would have said it to avoid hurting my feelings). I'm cool with whatever my brother decides to do with it. I just feel that the house should be making us a little money rather than costing us money to pay taxes on it.
You could quitclaim the house over to your brother.
 

Bluebinky

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You could quitclaim the house over to your brother.
Be careful, there could be a tax liability if you do that.

Unless everything is perfectly spelled out in a will or whatever, there will likely be a non-trivial amount of leg work involved. Probably one of you guys needs to step up and be the "executor". In my limited experience, getting taxes and debts cleared is the thing to do first. Oh, and don't be tempted to cash any of his social security checks...
 

Reach4

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Be careful, there could be a tax liability if you do that.
I think you are thinking of a gift tax thing taking away from the $5.45 million lifetime exemption for that portion of the current value over $14000. Or if you gave half to the brother and half to his wife, $28000 for the half interest. If that is a consideration, I expect there is a way around that. I am not a tax person, but selling your interest in the house at an amount less than your half of the appraisal could result in a capital loss on your taxes.

In retrospect, if the house had been owned by the estate, Khardiss could have refused that portion of the inheritance.
 

Khardiss

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We've kept the taxes paid, so there aren't any back taxes or debts involved.

But don't get me started on the deed to the house/property. That's an entirely different ball of wax that would have all of you rolling your eyes and probably stop talking to me. Lol. For some unknown reason, my dad put the deed in his brother's name (who died 7 years before my father did, before he ever started working on the house). Since I was named after my uncle, the house is "technically" (in the furthest stretch of the word) in my name. We know we're going to have to work with a lawyer on that before we sell/rent/do anything with the property (and it's on the to-do list for next time I'm there), but for now it's good enough for the city/county. As long as they have someone to go after if taxes aren't paid, they're happy. (We would have taken care of it sooner, but my dad's lawyer is a flaky bastard who dropped off the face of the earth when my dad died. We've been trying to communicate with him for over a year; he won't return calls and is never in his office. When I'm there next month, we're talking with a new lawyer to find out what we need to do.)
 
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