Who should pay for house problems when selling a house?

Question

If there are problems found during the inspection before closing, should the seller have to pay to fix them or is it the buyer's responsibility?

Answer 1

I would not invest more money into the home unless it is necessary to sell it. I think buyers are really just looking for someting that is fully functional, ready to be moved into, and of course in good condition.
Now, Home inspectors are very critical, they are looking for even the tinest flaws. Also their estimates are based on what they think a general contractor would charge, not the real price it can be done for by shopping around, and can also include issues that are purely cosmetic.
It is generally considered that a home is not going to be in perfect condition.
As long as there are no critical issues found in the insepction report, then everything else has to be taken with a grain of salt. I would suggest just negotiating a partial discount on the difference.

Answer 2

To answer your question legally, neither. In most states, the contracts are "as-is condition" regardless of what's found in the inspection.

Practically speaking is usually very different for all the reasons stated above. These same "as-is" contracts usually give buyers a time period to get out of the contract based on inspections and unsuccessful negotiations with the seller regarding repairs. In 16 years of business, the seller almost always gives SOMETHING to cover repairs whether it is getting the repairs done (usually not recommended), giving an allowance so the buyer can do them after closing (much better) or reducing the sales price some amount to account for it (good too).

The problem with holding the hard line as a seller on repairs is that the inspection report that you now hold in your hand (you do have a copy right?) now becomes DISCLOSURE for all future buyers and when you have to hand that inspection report over to future interested buyers, all those little things that seem like no big deal now can make the buyer feel like there's too many "issues" with the house.

As such, you are almost ALWAYS better served making the current contract work because you will inevitably dealing with those repairs anyway.

Hope this helped.

Answer 3

The short answer to your question is that the seller is responsible unless the house is being sold "As Is".

I'm not certain how the real estate laws are in your state but in NC, when an inspection is completed and the buyer has given the repair request to the seller, the seller has 3 options:

1) agree to complete all repairs request in which case the contract is still valid

2) agree to complete some of the repairs in which case the buyer can accept the repairs the seller will make and repair the others himself, void the contract or they can renegotiate the price

3) refuse to do any of the repairs in which case the buyer can accept the property as is, void the contract or renegotiate the price.

Obviously, there will always be items on the repair request that are minor. I always tell my buyers that we can ask for everything but they have to decide what the deal breakers are. As long as the seller agrees to fix those, everything is fine. And a lot of items on the repair request really aren't part of what a buyer can ask to have repaired (cosmetic things such as nicks in baseboard for instance). There should be a list of items that are covered (there is on the NC contract) in the contract and anything else is not something that you are required to fix.

Keep in mind that if you refuse repairs and the buyer voids the contract and walks away, the existence of problems becomes a material fact and you must disclose that these repairs need to be done to any potential buyers from that point on. Failure to disclose could lead you to a lawsuit from the person that does buy the home, especially if they don't have an inspection.

Answer 4

Hi,
As a buyer, I always have a building inspection done. This give me a good understanding of the structure and the condition it is in. This also gives me some leverage on the asking price. If it is found that there are problems that need addressing, it will either be fixed prior to the closing by the seller, or the asking price will be adjusted to account for needed repairs. So the responsibility could go both ways depending on what is negotiated prior to the closing. There is no set rule on this type of thing, because it all comes down to negotiation on asking price.

Answer 5

In a general sense the seller should pay for these repairs. But it is something that is negotiable. If the seller has already agreed to a low price then they are usually less inclined to agree to also doing repairs. If the buyer agrees to buy the house as is then they are agreeing to make the repairs. Keep in mind that as is just means that they have to know about all the problems in the home. But they must be informed of all of the defects of the home. Hope I helped

Answer 6

Generally, it is the seller who pays for repairs needed prior to closing (after all, it is the seller's house until closing). It is usually in the contract for sale. Legally, it is a matter that should have been negotiated prior to executing the contract. If it is not in the contract and the damages are extensive enough, a court is likely to either allow the buyers to back out of the deal OR make them purchase, but reduce the sales price by the amount needed to make the repairs.

Answer 7

Seller because during inspection some thing need to be fixed then buyer can refuse the deal or might knock down the price.

Answer 8

It is negotiable. If you are the seller you need to think about whether or not you want to loose that buyer. Depending on where you are, there seems to be more sellers than buyers.

If you are the seller and you try to hide problems it can come to haunt you, but if the problems are out in the open (disclosed) than once the sale is complete the seller wouldn't have to worry about them.

Answer 9

That is a matter of negotiation between buyer and seller. Either one or the other can agree to pay for needed repairs, or they can agree on a split of those costs.

How your negotiations end up will depend on what price you have offered for the house. If you ground them down to the lowest dollar, you might end up with the seller refusing to go any further into his/her pocket.

Answer 10

You can request that the seller fix the items before closing or you can negotiate the cost of the repairs from the sales price. If you signed a contract on the house and you both agreed to a sales price of $150,000 and the building inspector claims it's going to cost $12,000 to fix the repairs then you can ask the seller to take $12,000 less in order to make the repairs yourself. If you decide to fix yourself then make sure you get estimates from licensed contractors BEFORE you go to the seller and negotiate a lower asking price, don't go by what the building inspector says it might cost you'd hate to ask for $10,000 off and find out once you move in that it's going to cost you $18,000 to fix and have to come up with $8,000 out of your pocket.

Good luck