The dump station is a $60k repair and the seller says it's optional

Question

Bought a 28-site park outside Hocking Hills in September, closed at 410k, and the dump station has been failing for at least two seasons based on what neighbors told me after we signed. Seller disclosed a "minor drainage issue" and priced it in at $8,000. Got a civil engineer out there last week and he's at $58,000 to $63,000 to do it right, possibly more if the drain field under the gravel lot is as compromised as he suspects. His words were "this is not a repair, this is a replacement." The seller's position is that guests can use the site hookups and don't need a central dump station, which is technically true for maybe a third of my current rigs but absolutely not true for the self-contained travelers who make up the other two thirds of that location's traffic. Hocking Hills pulls a specific kind of guest who moves around and dry-camps and needs that station. Without it I'm either turning away rigs at the gate or I'm the park with bad reviews by June. I have a real estate attorney looking at the disclosure documents now but I'm not optimistic because "minor drainage issue" is doing a lot of work and I signed off on the inspection contingency at three weeks. Wondering if anyone has fought a disclosure like this and what that actually looked like, or whether I'm just eating the $60k and moving on.

vince_okoro82 · Answer

The disclosure fight is worth pursuing but go in clear-eyed about what it usually costs. I was in a smaller dispute on a commercial property in rural Ohio, seller disclosed "some settling" on a retaining wall, engineer came back at $34,000, and the disclosure language was similarly vague. Attorney spent about four months on it, I paid roughly $9,000 in legal fees, and we settled at $14,500 back to me. So I got maybe five cents on the dollar after costs and time. The thing that hurt me was exactly what you're describing, I waived down to a three-week inspection window under pressure and the seller's attorney leaned on that hard. If your engineer will put in writing that the existing condition could not have developed in one or two seasons and that the "minor drainage issue" language was materially misleading, that is your real leverage. Not the settlement threat, the paper from the engineer that says this was knowingly underrepresented.

The operational reality you're describing about Hocking Hills traffic is something I'd document right now before you lose the season. Pull your booking inquiries, flag every rig type, start logging any guest who asks about the dump station at check-in. If you end up in mediation or small claims you want to show actual revenue impact, not a hypothetical. Also worth calling the Hocking County health department before your attorney does, because if that drain field is as compromised as your engineer suspects there may already be a compliance issue attached to the property that predates your closing, and that changes the disclosure conversation entirely. I'd want to know if there's a file on that address before I decided how hard to push.

The dump station is a $60k repair and the seller says it's optional

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