Yeah, sound like what I was guessing, underground stream (spring). Seen it too many times. It sux real bad for the homeowner who gets stuck with it. Good luck with your case. You should prevail in the end.

Ckuennen, fight the good fight. I hope you can get this resolved through the courts. If not, $30K definitely looks to be only the beginning.

My house was built 40 years ago on what used to be a rice paddy for the previous several hundred years at least, and the property has yet to properly "dry out" (they say it takes 30 years). I too have more than $30K invested under the 1st floor, including ripping out the entirety of the floor under the kitchen and rebuilding it with new wood 15 years ago.

I should have torn the house down years ago and started again. Too much invested in repairs over the years to think about that now, but maybe should consider it. Trying not to get Stuck on Stupid either way.

BTW, what exactly is that critter sitting there on its own little "island"?

Chimi I believe that there is a bullfrog..... I love Japan.

Bullfrogs are OK-- they keep the other creepy crawlies away (cf. Spazznout's photo above). Geckos/salamanders also good.

PM me if you ever decide to visit Japan. We can swap tales of woe over several bottles of sake. I'm stocked enough for the second coming.

Our last house was built on a slope leading down to a wetland several hundred feet behind. The basement rear and garage side were on essentially on grade, but the front and other side were below grade.

For almost a decade the basement was totally dry. Then we had a very wet spring, and water bubbled up through cracks in the concrete floor near the stairs. It didn’t build up to any significant level because it ran out through the garage. Even though it dried up after a week or two, I installed a sump pump in the nearby corner to prevent a reoccurrence. However, almost every spring after that water bubbled up in the same spot when the snow melted, ran across the floor, and down into the sump pump pit where it was pumped out. The rest of the year the basement was totally dry. I never understood why the water would not divert to the nearby sump pump pit, which was several feet lower than the basement floor.