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Water in my basement: I'm certain the sellers lied on the disclosure form when we bought our house.
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Anonymous
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It's very clear to me that the sellers were less-than-honest on the disclosure form when we bought our house one year ago. We've had water in the basement twice in the past year (including this morning, hence my ire). Since we moved in, the neighbors inquired "Have you had water in the basement yet?" and noted that everyone on the street has problems with water in the basement. Since the seller lived in the house for 60 years, I have a good hunch that these two instances of basement flooding aren't the first in the history of the house.
The home inspector we used was recommended by the seller's agent (we didn't use a buyer's agent). He found no evidence of mold during the inspection before purchase. Since then, we've had to rip out wet areas of the basement and remediate mold. Again, I find it hard to believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of the house. Is there anything we can do? Or do all sellers just lie on the disclosure forms? |
Anonymous
Don't know what you can do but I can sympathize with you...we bought our house knowing it flooded (it's in a very desirable neighborhood  ). We had the problem fixed, and yes it's costly, but we needed the living space. I can recommend the company that fixed our basement.
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Anonymous
| The inspector should have found something if it had happened before - it doesn't matter who recommended him. You could contact the licensing bureau on them I suppose. Otherwise, it is very difficult to prove that the sellers knew about this given that it didn't show up in the inspector's report. |
Anonymous
| We had the same thing happen to us - all of a sudden - our chimney liner collapsed. The home inspector, recommended by our agent, didn't even look up the chimney! By the time this happened, it was just over a year after moving in. We know the owner's knew that there was a bad chimney despite that they didn't report it on the disclosure form. We also felt we had recourse with the home inspector. Nope - whatever release for we signed with him basically protected him from just about everything! We also didn't want to waste our time and more money trying to prove all of this in court, so we just sucked it up and learned our lesson for the next time. |
Anonymous
| What exactly do you think the sellers lied about? Did you ask them if there was mold? I believe that the inspector didn't find any evidence of mold. Those inspectors are only in the house for a few hours and if the mold has been painted over, there's no way it's going to be detected during a general home inspection. A buyer's agent might have told you to get a mold inspection, too. |
Anonymous
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OP here. To 13:50: There is a part of every seller's disclosure form that asks if the seller has any knowledge of current or past leaks, or water problems. This is standard. This is not my first house. I've bought and sold many times before. I believe the sellers knew the house had problems with water in the basement and they did not disclose this. The neighbors certainly knew there were water problems in the house...wish I had spoken to them.
It's the dishonesty that aggravates me. |
Anonymous
| Material breach of the contract? Would you have bought the house if you knew there would be water in the basement? Or maybe just a reason to have bought at a lower price? But you need to decide if it's worth it to pursue it further. |
Anonymous
| Buyer Beware. There is very little possible recourse for this type of thing and the fact that you were given the opportunity to fully inspect the house (and could have investigated the neighborhood, spoken to neighbors, etc.) pretty much shifts the legal blame to you. You could always consult a real estate attorney if it would make you feel better, but I'd save the $ on legal fees and use it towards trying to fix the problem. It sucks, but life isn't always fair. |
Anonymous
This is very bad advice! Dishonesty on a disclosure form is a serious matter, and can be pursued. Depending on the costs of fixing and repairing, this is something you can choose to pursue or just forget about. You don't really need a lawyer, though I'd recommend one -- you can probably take them to small claims court and represent yourself. Even if you don't get any money back, it might be worthwhile to send a message to the seller and scare him / her a little bit. And you just might win. Good luck -- being scammed sucks. I had a buyer's agent who was extremely aggressive on things like this, but if they lie, they lie. I'm also not sure about the home inspector not being able to discern mold. It probably depends on the situation, but ours told us that he could tell that we do NOT have mold problems in our new home. |
Anonymous
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Just to offer a different perspective: are you *sure* the sellers knew? Are you *sure* there had been water issues before? Not quite the same information, but when we sold our house a few years ago, after being incredibly scrupulous about listing every possible item on the disclosure, the buyers later tried to come after us because our air conditioning broke the day after they moved in. It was just a fluky coincidence, and we had never had problems with it before, so of course we hadn't disclosed it because there was nothing to disclose. We fought the claim because it was baseless (we won, BTW). At the same time, I can actually understand why the buyers would have thought to themselves that we were lying, because it *was* a bizarre coincidence, timing-wise. So my point is that unless you really have evidence implicating them, they might not be at fault.
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Anonymous
| I think unless you can PROVE this happened before, you're screwed. Ask your agent. |
Anonymous
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She doesn't have a buyer's agent, which is part of the reason she's screwed. If you have bought and sold many times before, you should have known not to trust an inspector recommended by the seller's agent.
PP is correct that a mold inspection is a separate deal and a home inspector is not qualified to assess mold situations. I have a friend who bought a house in Potomac a couple years ago and discovered almost immediately upon moving in that there was mold in the basement that had been painted over. She sued the seller and they reached a settlement to help defray the cost of remediating the mold. But, a) she is a lawyer herself so it didn't cost her anything and b) she had a witness who could PROVE that the seller told him to paint over the mold. |
Anonymous
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Something happened to me, too long of a story to recall the whole thing, but....cost me $36k to fix correctly, and I talked to a number of real estate attorneys. I thought I had a pretty good case, but the reality is (I think) it wasn't really "worth it" for the good ones to pursue it.
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Anonymous
| No advice just want to offer sympathy. Our inspector missed stuff too, but this was our first house so we were counting on him in a big way. He came highly recommended by the colleague of our agent, who we love. The agent who recommended is a top seller, so I wonder if her inspector is there to just push it through for her or something. I adore our agent and know that if her inspector had been available that day we might have gotten better help. |
Anonymous
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In my experience so far home inspections are pretty much worthless. They tell you what you already know but not the key questions about foundations, mold, water penetration etc. As for recourse to the sellers, this only really works for something very expensive when you have very good evidence that they lied in disclosures, not when you have strong suspicions.
I think every time you buy a house you need to accept that there could be some expensive things that come to bite you. Basements that will flood, roofs will need repairing etc etc. It is not like you are buying a house in Germany where they make things properly. |