Can I Sell My House in Spokane If It Has an Old Heating Oil Tank?

Plenty of Spokane houses that heat with gas today started life on coal, switched to oil somewhere in the middle of the last century, and switched again later. Each change could leave hardware behind. Sometimes it is a steel tank on legs in the basement next to a converted furnace. Sometimes it is a tank buried in the side yard with a fill pipe poking up by the foundation. Occasionally a house has had both.

The two kinds sell differently, so start by figuring out which one you have.

How to tell if your Spokane house still has an oil tank

A basement tank is easy to spot. It is usually a long oval or round steel drum on four legs, often against a foundation wall, with a copper or steel line running over to the furnace and a fill pipe and vent passing out through the wall. You still find them in the older brick and stone basements on the South Hill, around Manito, and through the Perry District, some in use and some abandoned years ago.

A buried tank takes more detective work. Look for:

• A capped pipe a couple of inches across rising out of a flower bed or lawn close to the house, often on the side nearest the street or alley where the delivery truck parked.
• A thinner vent pipe running up the siding with a small cap on top.
• Two small lines, or their cut stubs, coming through the basement wall near the furnace.
• A patched hole in the foundation where lines used to run, or a newer furnace sitting on an old oil burner pad.

None of those proves a tank is still in the ground, and the absence of all of them proves very little. Fill pipes get cut off at grade and covered with bark. A tank locating service can sweep the yard with a metal detector or ground penetrating radar, usually in a single visit. Ask the fire department what records it has for your address, and look through the files from when you bought the house for a decommissioning certificate or contractor report.

Hillyard, West Central, and the older blocks around Garland and Audubon have the same history, as do the older parts of Spokane Valley. The Tri-Cities have fewer, though an older wartime house in central Richland can still have one, and the article on selling a Richland alphabet house covers what else to check in those.

Why buyers, lenders, and insurers ask about old tanks

A tank is a question about the ground under it. Steel rusts, and a buried tank that leaked years ago can leave oil in the soil that costs real money to clean up. The buyer who closes on the house takes on that possibility, which is why a buyer’s inspector will note a fill pipe and suggest a sweep, and why some buyers’ lenders want the status of a known tank documented before they fund.

Insurance is the other piece. Some insurers ask about oil heat and about any tank on the property when they write a policy, and a buyer who has trouble getting coverage can have trouble closing. Your buyer’s agent will usually push to get these answers during the inspection period, so it helps if you already have them.

A basement tank that is in good shape and still heating the house is a smaller conversation. Some buyers are happy with oil heat. Others will ask about the tank’s age, look for weeping seams or stains on the floor under it, and want to know what switching to gas or a heat pump would take.

Decommission in place or remove it: what each involves

For a buried tank that is out of service, the choices are to close it in place or dig it out. Washington’s Pollution Liability Insurance Agency points owners to the fire code, which generally says an underground tank out of service for a year or more has to be removed or permanently closed in place. Closing in place means pumping out the remaining oil, cleaning the tank, and filling it with an approved inert material such as sand or concrete slurry. Removal means excavating it and hauling it away, and it usually costs more and tears up more of the yard.

Your local fire authority sets the specific procedure and permit. Inside the city that is generally the Spokane Fire Department, and in the Valley and the rest of the county it may be Spokane Valley Fire or a county fire district. Confirm with them before hiring anyone. Hire a contractor who does heating oil tank work regularly, ask the fire authority what certification it expects the contractor to hold, and ask whether soil samples are part of the quote.

A basement tank is simpler. A contractor pumps out what is left, disconnects the lines, cuts the tank apart if it won’t fit through the door, and hauls it off. Seal the old fill and vent openings in the wall so nobody makes a delivery to a tank that isn’t there. Keep the receipt either way. A buyer will want it.

Soil testing, and what happens if a tank leaked

A decommissioning without soil sampling leaves the most expensive question unanswered. When samples are taken around and under a buried tank and they come back clean, you have a document that settles the issue for most buyers. If they show oil, the next step is an assessment of how far it spread and a cleanup plan, which can take a while and is best done by a contractor experienced with heating oil releases.

This is where sellers are most tempted to leave a tank alone and hope. The honest tradeoff: an untested tank keeps your options open until a buyer’s inspector finds the fill pipe, and then the question gets answered on the buyer’s schedule, with your closing date riding on it.

Help from Washington’s Pollution Liability Insurance Agency

In 2025 the Pollution Liability Insurance Agency, known as PLIA, replaced its old heating oil insurance program with the Heating Oil Loan and Grant Program. It is aimed at residential heating oil tank owners, including those dealing with cleanup after a leak. Eligibility, amounts, and how to apply are set by the agency and change over time, so read the current guidance at plia.wa.gov rather than relying on what a neighbor got a few years ago.

If you are close to selling, call PLIA before you call a contractor and ask how the program treats a house that is about to change hands. Loan and grant paperwork rarely moves at the speed of an escrow, and it is better to know that before you sign a purchase agreement with a closing date in it.

Disclosing a tank on the seller disclosure statement

The environmental section of Form 17, Washington’s seller disclosure statement, names fuel storage tanks among the conditions it asks about. If you know about a tank, say so, and say what you know: where it is, whether it is in use, whether it was decommissioned, and whether soil was tested. Attach the paperwork. If you don’t know, say that and describe what you have checked.

Fix the tank first or sell the house as it is

Handle the tank before listing when the house otherwise shows well and you want the widest pool of financed buyers. A decommissioning certificate and clean soil results let a South Hill or Manito buyer focus on the woodwork and the leaded glass. You spend some money and a few weeks up front, and you take a common inspection objection off the table. The Spokane selling page covers the other items buyers look at in older houses here, and if you have a basement tank you may also want to read about radon tests in Spokane County, since the same buyers tend to ask about both.

Sell as it is when the house needs other major work, the tank may have leaked, or you can’t carry the cost and uncertainty of a cleanup. Investors who buy older Spokane houses for cash have seen plenty of tanks. They discount for the unknown and tend to ask for fewer conditions. A cash offer request lets you see that number next to a realistic listing estimate before you decide.