When looking for a home, you may have heard that you shouldn’t consider contingencies – including a home tour – if you want a seller to select your offer to buy. But not inspecting a home before buying it is a recipe for disaster. You may be lucky and only encounter minor issues, or you may not be as lucky and feel like you’ve bought a lemon.
Here we look at your options when you buy a home, move in, and find that there is more harm than you knew about.
The nightmare house
Let’s say you take out a mortgage on a house only to find out that the chimney needs to be rebuilt, the water heater is on its last legs, and the central air conditioning only works every other day. These are all problems a competent home inspector would have found. But if your inspector hasn’t found them, you have the option to sue them. Most home inspectors are sued at least once in their careers, according to FindLaw. And if the problems are things that are expected of a good home inspector, you might have a good case.
But what if you skipped the home inspection? This is where the question of buying a lemon gets tricky.
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Your rights
Most states require sellers to disclose known defects on a sellers disclosure form. Suppose the seller knew that the foundation was leaking, the electrical system was loose, or the chimney was not working. In most cases, they are legally required to let you know about this before buying the house.
Some states even require sellers to disclose things they “should have known”. Say the basement leaks every time it rains. The seller should know about this issue and is responsible for disclosing the issue.
Suppose someone lived in a house for five years. The basement leaked every time it rained, but they paid a foundation company to fix the problem. Typically, a seller does not need to disclose a problem as long as it has been repaired.
A huge hole in disclosure
New York home sellers can avoid completing a seller disclosure form by crediting the buyer with $ 500 upon completion. You are under no obligation to tell potential buyers what to expect as long as they go above that $ 500. The New York law – called the Property Condition Disclosure Act – is popular with sellers. According to the right-wing Nolo, many home sellers in the state choose not to fill out a disclosure form and instead pay the loan.
Even in states with strict disclosure laws, it’s easy for sellers to feign ignorance and pretend they have no clue about problems.
Do you have any legal remedies?
It is possible to sue the former owner of a money pit. You may even be able to sue the real estate agent who sold you the house. However, it is not easy. To have a chance at recovery, the following must be correct and demonstrable (but check with an attorney for details):
- The problem existed before buying the property.
- The problem wasn’t easy to spot. For example, there is a massive crack in the foundation that you should know before buying.
- The seller either failed to disclose the problem or lied to cover it up.
- > You have relied on the information to be true and accurate.
- You have been financially damaged by the problem.
You can be convinced that the former homeowner knew about the dying sump pump or the leak in the master bedroom closet, but proving it is extraordinarily difficult. It can also get expensive to hire a lawyer to handle your case.
Your options
If you have an expensive lemon on your hands, these might be your best options:
- Ask the former owner to mediate with a third party who can help work out a solution.
- Buy a home guarantee from a reputable company (if you didn’t get one from the former owner). Make sure it covers the issues you need to address and doesn’t rule out pre-existing conditions.
- Talk to a lawyer who specializes in real estate. Many offer the initial consultation free of charge. They can tell you when you have a case. If not, there is no reason to waste money on this option.
- Take your complaint to the Small Claims Court. State boundaries range between $ 2,500 and $ 25,000, according to Nolo. Find out what the limit is for your state, and if the expected repair cost falls below that number, consider taking the former owner to justice. They can’t prevail, but application fees in many states are less than $ 100.
Whenever possible, the best thing you can do for yourself is to avoid problems in the first place. The easiest way to do this is to have your home inspected before you buy. You can either do this as part of an emergency or bring your own inspector with you before submitting an offer.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to do your due diligence before buying a home. No matter how pressured you feel to make a decision or skip the inspection, when you buy a home, you buy its troubles too. Getting the former owner to carry out repairs is mostly a battle lost.
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source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/18/my-new-house-is-a-lemon-what-are-my-options/
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