Just bought a house, it had a leaky roof, and it wasn't disclosed. Now what?

Question

I'm thinking of sending a letter (acutally sent by my realtor) to the sellers and the listing agent asking for the money for the cost of repair, which was $600. Where can I find a sample letter?

Here's where we're at now. The seller knew about the leak. It was already repaired once before, but it proved to be a bad patch job, and wasn't aware of the new leak.

The home inspection was 100% professional, and our payment for the inspection ($430) was fully refunded.

Where can I find an example of a letter I can send to the lender/listing agent/etc?

Answer 1

It is possible it wasn't leaking before. After all, we are just entering the rainy season and roofs have to start leaking sometime.

Did you have a home inspection that found any evidence of a leaky roof?

Another tactic, did you buy a home warranty or was it included as part of the sale? The insurer may be on the hook for the leaky roof.

Answer 2

First off you'd have to prove that the seller was aware of the leaky roof when they offered the place for sale and deliberately withheld that fact. That can be exceedingly difficult to prove unless the leak would have been obvious to the casual observer. And if the leak was that obvious in the first place the presumption is that a cautious buyer would have brought the issue up prior to closing.

This also implies that you probably did not get a professional inspection prior to closing. As a buyer you have a duty of "due dilligence" to ensure that the property is as claimed. A prudent person would engage the services of a professional inspector and assuming that this was a detectible defect the inspector would have found it.

Of course you must consider the distinct possibility that this is the first time that the roof leaked. If that is the case, the seller is under no obligation to you whatsoever unless the offered you a warranty that the roof would not leak for a specified period of time. That would be unusual to say the least.

When I bought my current home we had a professional inspection and a termite inspection. The inspections revealed some minor, early termite activity that needed to be treated and repaired. I observed the repairs when the basement walls (finished basement) were opened up. There was absolutely no evidence of any water entry into the basement. No staining, no mold, no odors. Nothing. I was satisfied that we had a truly DRY basement. About 2 weeks after closing we were hit with a gully-washer of near Biblical proportions. A long-fogotten dry creekbed at the bottom of the street turned into a raging river and flooded several neighbors' basements. We were clear of the creekbed but water backed up against a retaining wall and entered our basement through a hidden defect in the construction of the house. When we tore out the walls to locate the source of the water entry we discovered other construction defects that needed to be addressed and additional termite damage that could not have been detected by any other means than tearing out the walls. We had absolutely no claim against the sellers as there is no way that they could reasonably have known about those defects. The builder was long dead so there was no claim there either; we had to eat the entire cost ourselves -- nearly $20,000.

In the grand scheme of things a $600 roof repair is peanuts. It's not worth the cost of an attorney to attempt to collect anything even IF you can prove that the sellers were aware of the leak and improperly withheld that information from you. And if you can't prove that they knew about it you'll collect nothing and still have to pay your legal costs yourself.

Answer 3

Leaky roofs happen all the time.
If you paid for a home inspection before the close of escrow, the problem should have been brought to light. In that case, the lender would have asked for repairs or considerations.
However, if there was no mention about a leaky roof, the homeowner warranty should cover it because it was not an existing problem.
When helping my clients purchase a home, I always ask the seller to pay for a one year warranty including "basic and roof."
Its is a small price to pay(about 380 bucks) for a seller to get a property off his hands.

Answer 4

If the seller was not aware of the new leak, there was nothing to disclose. Disclosure requirements do not include disclosing issues which have been repaired. If the seller had the leak repaired, and considered that it was properly repaired, there is no violation of disclosure here.

If there was a leak and the home inspector missed it during inspection, THAT is where you should be going for redress.

Answer 5

It is the law, and should have been disclosed. I would get in touch with the title company.