Vancouver Real Estate News

After her mother’s death, Jill started the process of putting her mother’s Surrey home on the market. As an initial step, Jill hired a company to scan the backyard for an oil storage tank.

Prior to 1957, several homes in Greater Vancouver were originally heated with furnace oil. As natural gas became more common and readily available, the vast majority of oil storage tanks – which were normally located underground in backyards – were filled with sand and capped. However, the lifespan of these tanks was only about 20 years and many have started to corrode and rust with the potential of leaking and contaminating the soil on the property (and even neighbouring properties!).

The following day, Jill got some bad news.