Does a person have any recourse when they buy a house with a defect & the seller did not provide a disclosure?

Question

We bought a house without a realtor assistance & requested a disclosure statement from the seller but he never did provide it & we did not pursue it. We had an inspector check the house out but the basement was not leaking when the inspection was done. Is it possible to win a legal case against the seller to pay for the leaky basement without the disclosure statement? The seller did tell one of the neighbors that he hopes the inspector did not find out about the leak. I do not wish to use the neighbor to testify what he said because she was a friend to both seller & us.

Answer 1

Your most likely avenue of recourse will be if the defect in question was something that the Seller knew about, but not something that you could have readily observed. This is called a latent defect. The challenge there may be establishing that the Seller actually had knowledge of this condition.

You may also have a claim against your inspector/engineer as suggested, but in many cases your remedy (what you can get from them) is contractually limited to a certain amount - usually whatever you paid them to do the inspection. Plus, you would have to establish that they were negligent. This might be tough because just because they did not see this defect does not mean they are negligent - it could just be that it was unobservable even to the trained eye when the inspection was done.

Answer 2

Does your state require any "seller" to provide a disclosure statement? Some states a formal disclosure statement is not required with for sale by owners. If it is required then you would have a case unless your state would consider your failure to act or say anything as somehow waiving that obligation. I doubt it though.

Having said that, in most states, you can not waive any of your rights without full disclosure and in the case of latent defects, was the leaking basement something the seller knew or should have known prior to the sale?

The other issue would be whether your act of sale was considered "as is" or in Louisiana it is called "with waiver of Redhibition." Again, you would have a cause of action if you could prove that your waiver was not informed and therefore entitled to either rescind the sale or repair.

As in any dispute you have to decide whether the time and expense is worth the trouble of pursuing a lawsuit. I would suggest that you at least contact a real estate attorney and have him send a demand letter threatening rescission of the sale if they don't get it fixed.

Answer 3

You may have discourse if there was a warrnaty expressed in the sale. You may also have discourse with the engineer who did the inspection assuming it is the leak was there (even though it was not leaking at that time) when it was inspected.

Answer 4

Take the money you saved from not using a realtor and fix the problem.
A law suit will cost around $25,000+ and could take two years to settle.
FYI, there is no charge to use a realtor when buying, only selling.
Either way, it less than a realtor will get for his/her expertise.

Answer 5

you would possibly want to have recourse suing the inspector and supplier. supplier for hiding it and the inspector for no longer searching it. you're required to prepare any defects the domicile might want to have in case you study it. Get a felony specialist.

Answer 6

Certain laws appy depending which state you are in. Sounds to me like you need to consult a real estate attorney, not some strangers on yahoo. Advice here is free, and sometimes that is all it's worth.