Non-disclosure claims / real estate litigation

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raisingboys

New member
Anyone have experiences with non-disclosure claims or real estate litigation, due to sellers not disclosing leaks or mold in the home during escrow?

Wanting to get some info on people's personal experiences. 

History:  Pre-existing slab leak caused mold and damages to remodel (not major, but more than $5K of damages, not including mold remediation).  We have proof that the sellers had a leak during escrow and did not fix it, nor did they disclose the leak to us. 

We found a real estate attorney that charges $275/hr, yikes!  But not sure if accruing attorney fees would result in compensation in the end.  Considering the sellers skipped out on paying the plumber and HOA fees for 2 years.


 
No I did know about the leak before we closed escrow.  Otherwise, we wouldn't have installed new wood floors and repainted the whole house. 
 
Save the attorney's fees and just sue them in small claims.  Get estimates for the remaining repairs and tag it onto the $5k you've already spent. 

At that rate your attorneys fees will exceed you max possible judgement in no no time, so not worth going that route.
 
About how long ago did you buy the house?  If not too long, can you ask your buyer
s agent to talk to the seller's agent and try to negotiate a settlement before you go to court? 
 
I agree with irvinehusky... not sure how you got proof that this happened during escrow but if so, consult your agent first.

There are probably provisions regarding this that you can use before going the attorney route.
 
I'm sure the seller will say he didn't know about it.

I don't know the legalities but I am assuming if the seller didn't know (or pretends to not know about it and you can't prove that he did) then he's pretty much off the hook since he made a "best effort" to disclose everything. Otherwise, we'd be in trouble every time we sell a home.

But didn't the OP mention that a plumber he talked to was called out by the seller to check the leak but didn't end up repairing it?  If the OP could get the plumber to vouch for his story, it might have some weight in the negotiations and possible small claims court.  I still think these things should be discussed first with the OP's own agent first to negotiate a settlement.  I hope the OP had a good agent like the ones on this board who would help him out.

eyephone said:
Do you think, the seller can say it happened after escrow closed?
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The home inspector should have identified the leak. If the previous owner said he didn't know about it and the home inspector didn't even see it that's a tough sell to get the previous owners to pay for it right?

Let us know which home inspector you went with so we can avoid that person like the plague. The inspector really should have brought it to your attention prior to COE.

Sorry this happened to you, hope the damage was reversible and your renovations aren't affected in the long run.
 
Good advice about not going with the attorney route first. 

Our neighbor recommended plumber A.  Plumber A came to our home and was surprised to see a new owner.  He said that the previous owner called him in on such date because of a leak.  The date is during our escrow period.  The seller did not disclose this incident.  Plumber A is willing to put it in writing for us, and and over the invoice and call logs made between Plumber A and seller.

Home inspector is unable to detect slab leaks.  I already called several inspectors, including ours.  They said it's impossible to check for it.  Besides, Plumber A was called in after our inspection date.

At this point, I will wait for the plumber to give me his statement in writing, and perhaps get it notarized.  Without that, we don't have much proof moving forward.

And without that, it's still here say, we cannot assume the sellers knew about it.

In the mean time, I should just call our home owner's insurance to start taking care of the leak, wet dry wall and get the water damage people to dry the areas to prevent mold.  Right???  There is no benefit in waiting. 

We shut off our hot water pipe, so we've been living without hot water.  So, definitely no benefit in waiting.

I will let the realtor handle it first, then move forward.

Thanks for all the input.  It helps.
 
BTW, if I call Serv-Pro, can I ask them to place a containment sheet (or whatever it's called to close up the room with plastic), just in case there is black mold already within the dry mold?  So the spores and moldy air does not spread.

Anyone used emergency water damage companies?  What is their process?
 
My experience is closing off the room is standard to dry out everything quickly. Granted it was a bathroom so pretty easy to close off.  I've used sparkle restoration. They closed off the the room, ripped out the damaged flooring and used a large heated fan to dry everything out. Took a few days. Then they repaired the floor and reset the toilet properly (which was the source).  Nice thing was they coordinated all the subcontractors., only had to deal with one company.
 
No since it was only a downstairs bathroom and it was pretty easy for them to seal off. Dryers were loud but tolerable from upstairs.
 
raisingkids said:
Anyone used emergency water damage companies?  What is their process?
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Aquabliss post his response at another thread.

 

aquabliss said:
I had a dishwasher leak and my home builder used World Restoration.  They were awesome, highly recommended, very clean and thorough... Even the twenty something kids that worked for them were very polite and professional.http://www.yelp.com/biz/world-restoration-inc-orange
Click to expand...
 
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