Defect in property, not disclosed, options? - Posted by Josh

Posted by eric on September 14, 2004 at 16:04:55:

Depends on what state you are in. Generally, a seller must disclose all latent, material defects that he actually knows about.

In CA, the courts are split on whether the seller is required to disclose past problems that were subsequently repaired. The better practice is to disclose and put the buyer on notice of the potential problem and thus absolving themselves of future claims.

The question is how much money do you want to spend on attorney’s fees litigating this? I’m sure that the purchase K has a fees provision, but you will still need to litigate to finality and be deemed the “prevailing party” in order to recover your fees. You may be required to demand mediation prior to initiating any legal action to preserve your attorney’s fees.

Defect in property, not disclosed, options? - Posted by Josh

Posted by Josh on September 14, 2004 at 12:34:12:

I wanted to see what my options might be for going back on the previous owner of the property for not disclosing some major flood problems that I’ve ran into in the two years of owning the home. The inspection didn’t have any mention of potential problems. The neighbors say they knew of problems in the past, and prior damage and repair can be seen. I called the PO and asked him what his history was. He says they used to have problems, but they were all fixed after they installed a drain outside to carry away water that built up against the house, and never had a problems since. Shouldn’t this have been disclosed early on? Even if it was fixed and repaired? Obviously, they didn’t do a good enough job to fix it. If I had known there was any potential of water damage, I wouldn’t have bought the place. But, the inspection didn’t catch it, nor did the PO disclose it. Will it matter that I have tried to cure the problem myself with different methods? It seems like it may be a foundation problem, so I’m thinking the money can get pretty deep for repairs. I don’t want to perform a fix, then have the next owner come back on me. Should I, or can I go after the PO to fix this? Is it worth it?