I Was Sold A House With An “illegal And Highly Dangerous” Furnace

I live in the state of Colorado and bought my house with a VA home loan January of last year.

Not long after I moved in, I started smelling gas coming from one of my vents. I called the gas company and they sent someone out to check who said everything was fine. I called again on a separate date, they again sent the same guy who, again, said everything was fine.

In a separate event, my dog chewed up my internet cable so the internet company had to send someone out to replace the cable. The technician, while he was inside my house said “I smell gas!”

I called the gas company again and requested they send a different technician because, at this point, I knew I wasn’t imagining it and the smell was strong.

The guy they sent red-tagged my furnace and turned off my gas because my furnace is “illegal and highly dangerous” with the exhaust escaping inside my basement and coming in through my vents.

I called 2 separate HVAC technicians with 2 separate companies, just to be sure, and to have 2 opinions/quotes. When they each asked me what was going on I asked them if they could just take a look at it and give me their expert opinions. Without any leading information, they both said my furnace wasn’t legal and that it was very dangerous. Both said they hadn’t seen anything like it before and when I told them it passed inspection they couldn’t believe it. The furnace is 28 years old which is passed the life expectancy of a furnace but the real issue is where the exhaust is escaping.

Both of the HVAC technicians said I need a new furnace which will be anywhere from $8,000-$10,000.

It’s expected to get into the teens and then the single digits here the next few days and I do not have that kind of money to replace the furnace.

If anyone knows anything about VA home loans then you know the VA has a laundry list of stipulations on VA approved home loans and are a major pain for sellers to deal with. The sellers of my house had their own laundry list of changes/repairs they had to make before they could sell to me, many that shouldn’t have even mattered. So I don’t understand how the house passed inspection when the furnace is “illegal and highly dangerous” and could potentially kill me.

I’m not sure what I can do from here, if anything, and I’m not at all familiar with legalities pertaining to real estate/home inspections. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

$145 for 30 minutes