What’s the worst/most expensive thing you’ve discovered was wrong after closing?

[Anonymous]

On a house?

[Anonymous]

Basement window wells leaked any time there was heavy rain. Spent about 10k rebuilding one of the window wells, regrading, and adding an exterior French drain. Knock on wood, but no water inside since.

[Anonymous]

I thought I bought a townhouse but it was a condo. They only used the word condo in the legal paperwork. Of course it’s obvious to me now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought I bought a townhouse but it was a condo. They only used the word condo in the legal paperwork. Of course it’s obvious to me now.

This is the kind of thing that would totally happen to me. I’m sorry! What was the ultimate effect?

[Anonymous]

Major room leak that went from roof to 2nd story to 1st story. They hid the standing water with furniture. They had left the furniture at closing. We were fine with that- we’d just donate it, but now we see they weren’t being nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought I bought a townhouse but it was a condo. They only used the word condo in the legal paperwork. Of course it’s obvious to me now.

I’m a transactional real estate attorney. I used the draft condo and hoa association docs. An HOA is legally a condominium turned sideways. They are effectively indistinguishable. What do you think is different about the two?

[Anonymous]

Not quite after closing but we didn’t the condo docs until a few hours before close and realized our townhouse style condo didn’t allow dogs. We didn’t have a dog yet but had planned on one. We still closed. After close we realized stack washer and dryer didn’t work.

[Anonymous]

Didn’t receive the condo docs that should say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought I bought a townhouse but it was a condo. They only used the word condo in the legal paperwork. Of course it’s obvious to me now.

I’m a transactional real estate attorney. I used the draft condo and hoa association docs. An HOA is legally a condominium turned sideways. They are effectively indistinguishable. What do you think is different about the two?

Is there a difference in what the master insurance policy covers? I know our condo townhouse the exterior structure is covered by the master and our personal policy is studs in. Is that how it is for an HOA?

[Anonymous]

Technically we knew about the very expensive structural issues on our home before closing. What we didn't know was the relatively new HVAC (1 year old) was installed completely incorrectly. Basically didn't work or serve the house. So we had to 1) buy 2 new AC units and 2) clean and fix the unit duct work.

[Anonymous]

Recurring water in basement. We fixed it with landscaping/ drainage, but during peak pandemic so it was difficult to get anyone to call me back and we paid at least twice what we should have.

Thought we had undisclosed lead water pipes, but turned out that the DC map was wrong. So lost money on digging up our yard to find that out, but not on actual replacement. The city covered some of the cost, but I’d advise everyone to check the map before closing so the seller can at least give you an idea if whether it’s accurate.

[Anonymous]

The day we moved in we realized the second floor AC wasn’t working.

[Anonymous]

The neighbors. The house next door was rented to several 20-something guys, and it was like having a fraternity house next door. The noise was almost constant. The coming and going at all hours was almost constant. At one point they had friends living in their yard -- adjacent to ours and no fence -- in a tent.

Fortunately last year they put the house on the market and the new neighbors are fine. But it was rough there for a while.

[Anonymous]

Kitchen sink started backing up. We got the plumbers in and basically the pipes were original, and almost closed solid. Needed to replace all the way to the street with new PVC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought I bought a townhouse but it was a condo. They only used the word condo in the legal paperwork. Of course it’s obvious to me now.

I’m a transactional real estate attorney. I used the draft condo and hoa association docs. An HOA is legally a condominium turned sideways. They are effectively indistinguishable. What do you think is different about the two?

Is there a difference in what the master insurance policy covers? I know our condo townhouse the exterior structure is covered by the master and our personal policy is studs in. Is that how it is for an HOA?

Not necessarily. There is very little practical difference between many HOAs and newer condominium associations. Some HOA ands condo associations cover exterior structures while others leave responsibility for exterior structures to owners.