For the second time in a little over a year, on January 24, 2012, homes in San Bruno were again evacuated. Work on a sewer line accidentally damaged a natural gas line rattling the nerves of local residents who remember the tragic gas pipeline explosion on September 9, 2010 that claimed 8 lives and 37 homes. Property I.D. has been providing the natural gas transmission pipeline disclosure upon request at no charge since December 2010. Because of the fact that the location of gas pipelines is currently not required by any statute, regulation, ordinance, or governmental decree, and since the information on the location of pipelines is inaccurate, incomplete, and constantly changing, the pipeline disclosure will not be automatically included in the Property I.D. Reports. If you or your client would like a pipeline disclosure with your report, you can easily request this disclosure at the time of ordering and Property I.D. will provide a gas pipeline disclosure upon request at no charge.
As you know, C.A.R. has amended its Statewide Buyer and Seller Advisory to include information about Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines. Item #29 of the form provides in pertinent part: "If Buyer wants further information about these underground pipelines and utilities, Buyer is advised to consult with appropriate experts during Buyer's investigation contingency period. Brokers do not have expertise in this area." NOTE: This does not create a statutory disclosure requirement for the seller, the agent, the broker, or the NHD company. It is a notice to Buyers that if they want information on this subject they should obtain it. Property I.D. Provides the Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines FREE upon request.
Although several bills regarding the safety and operations of natural gas transmission pipelines have been signed into law in California, not one of those bills requires the disclosure of this information in a real estate transaction. Here are the 5 Senate Bills that were signed into California law, please feel free to click on the links below and read them for yourself:
SB44 - http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_44_bill_20111007_chaptered.pdf
SB216 - http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0201-0250/sb_216_bill_20111007_chaptered.pdf
SB56 - http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_0051-0100/ab_56_bill_20111007_chaptered.pdf
SB879 - http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0851-0900/sb_879_bill_20111007_chaptered.pdf
SB705 - http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0701-0750/sb_705_bill_20111007_chaptered.pdf
All of the bills regarding natural gas transmission pipelines that were signed into law by the Governor deal with the natural gas companies' emergency response standards, implementation of automatic shut-off valves, rate recovery and expenditures. Not one of them creates a statutory disclosure requirement of this unreliable information in a real estate transaction.
Property I.D. is currently the only NHD company giving its clients the option to include or exclude this item.
Thank you for your valued business. Property I.D. is a 100% California Jobs Company.