Family says sewage backed up in home, not sure who to blame

LOCUST, N.C. — Amanda Pasquarello says the toilet on the main floor of their Locust house backed up.

“It just overflowed all the way through our main floor,” she said.

She says she hired a plumber and that he told her the problem was the sewer line under the slab under the dining room. According to the plumber, there’s what’s called a “belly” — basically, a dip where sewage gets caught and backs up — and that it would cost $34,000 to fix.

Pasquarello says the tab comes with a new warranty: Two to 20 years depending on the part of the project.

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“I’m upset. You know you pay a lot of money for a house. You want your house to be a safe, clean place for your children,” she said.

It’s not clear who — or what — is to blame for the problem.

The builder, True Homes, finished building the house in 2016. Pasquarello is the second owner. She bought the house in 2021 and didn’t have an issue until recently.

Still, Pasquarello decided to reach out to True Homes. The company pointed out its warranty and legal obligation has long since passed, but it still agreed to come take a look. It confirmed a belly does exist, and offered a free repair option.

But Pasquarello doesn’t want it. First, it’s a different fix than the one the plumber suggested. And, second, she would like a guarantee or a new warranty for the repair work, something the builder wouldn’t give and, legally, doesn’t have to.

True Homes told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke it covered sewer pipes for the first two years after building this house. It emailed Stoogenke, “True Homes encourages owners to submit all claims for warranty review. For this home, ‘sewer services piping’ is included in the warranty for plumbing systems in the first two years after construction. Unfortunately, the first time a sewer line backup was reported was almost 8 years after construction and the cause of the belly is unclear. Still, we offered a repair option at no cost. If the Pasquarellos have additional information for True Homes to consider, True Homes will review the information as it becomes available.”

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So, Pasquarello’s not sure what to do next.

“You buy a house, you expect a house to be your home and this, living like this … it’s not fair,” she said.

Here’s what to know if you have a sewage issue:

You can see if your home warranty will cover the repair (if you have one).
You can check with your insurance, but chances are your policy will cover the damage from the backup, but not repairing the sewer lines themselves.

If you’re thinking about legal action:

In both Carolinas, you generally can’t sue if you’ve known (or should have known) about the problem for three years.
In North Carolina: you generally can’t sue once the home hits six years old.
In South Carolina: Eight years old.

The NC code requirements for all sanitary piping is covered in Chapter 30 of the 2018 NCRC.

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