Gas Meter Underwater: Minor Issue or Need Immediate Help?

Hello!

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first home and we recently finished our home inspection. During our home inspection, we were experiencing heavy rain in SoCal and our inspector flagged that our gas meter was located underground in a gas chamber.

He noticed that our gas meter was completely submerged underwater and recommended that the gas supplier to be contacted to safely check all fuel gas systems before our contingency period ends. We included this in our Request for Repairs to the Sellers that we wanted them to contact SoCal Gas to better understand the situation and if this is something that needs to be addressed before we close escrow.

During the home inspection period, there were a few other big ticket items that took priority like roof repairs that needed to be negotiated. The Sellers never contacted the gas company and now they’re asking us to remove our inspection contingency without having closure on this topic citing that “the gas company will fix it at no cost to either party.” This is not something we are comfortable proceeding with as we don’t know much about gas meters or gas in general. What we want to avoid is a situation where there’s financial liability for us to be responsible for, even if it’s minor like replacing the concrete lid to the gas chamber.

How much of a risk is the gas meter being submerged underwater? Are we being unreasonable by writing a condition in our Inspection Contingency Removal that if this gas meter becomes an issue that we have the right to renegotiate terms or reinstate the inspection contingency?

Thanks!