I bought my house as a bank foreclosure in 2008. The prior owner had moved out on May/June of 2007, paid off the estimated water bill, and asked for the water to be turned off. Turns out the actual water bill was more than the estimate, by less than a buck - so the city wouldn't turn off the water. Several late payment fees and a disconnect fee later, the city did actually turn off the water, I think it was in December of 2007. The BANK however, didn't get anybody in there to winterize the house until MARCH of 2008. Most of the piping was in PVC, I live in Iowa, got any guesses what happened to the plumbing?
I knew about the plumbing when I bought the house, that's why I counter-offered a substantially lower amount to the bank. I replaced the plumbing and went to the city to get the water turned back on, this was right before Labor Day. Now remember that the water hadn't been on since I bought the house, I hadn't used a drop, I was told that I had a $184 water bill that had to be paid before the water would be turned back on. As calmly as I could, I asked the nice person how it was possible that I had a water bill, since I only bought the house in June and the water had been turned off all that time? I was told that in this town the water bill goes with the address, not the owner. My realtor and I sent this bill to the bank that I bought the house from since this SHOULD be their responsibility, that was 13-1/2 years ago - still waiting for that check.
The point of this rant is that you can get a HELLUVA deal with a foreclosure, I got a big drafty old house with LOTs of character that I love. But there's also things that can come out of the blue to bite you in the butt. DO NOT try to do this on a shoe-string budget thinking you'll flip it and make a butt-load of money.
Don