Diesel hot water....

[Mark_W]

Hi.

I am a new poster after discovering (and devouring the threads from) this forum a week or so ago.

My wife and I are looking at our first IP - and just to make it interesting it is a block of 7 units currently let as holiday units (we may revert back to more traditional long term leases).

One of the things that is turning me off is the fact the units have a big diesel hot water system which provides hot water to all units.(Circa 1979)

I know that for land where a service station has previously been operating there is a large cost involved with 'purifying' the land where the storage tanks have been and my question is does anyone have experience with diesel holding tanks in a residential setting?

IE if we were to convert to traditional hot water systems or at a later date demolish and rebuild new units would we potentially be up for large environmental cleanup costs etc??

Anyone with experience or an opinion would be welcome.

Cheers,

Mark.

 

[Norwester]

Welcome aboard Mark.

It's going to depend on how well the tank has been bunded (if at all) and the level of past spillages.

Any ideas on just how expensive that is to run?

ciao

Nor

 

[Mark_W]

Hi Norwester - thnx for the welcome

Not sure what bunded is but I'm sure google will help. Is there any way to tell that sort of information without digging the tanks up? As a general rule of thumb is this something should be concerned about as a future issue or not really??

As for running costs the units have been running at very low tenancy - the quoted cost for last year was around $1400 for fuel/oil