We bought a house last fall with used carpets but freshly cleaned. It is now becoming apparent that most of the pads under the carpets are soaked with dog pee... it smells in several rooms and the carpet cleaners used a black light to demonstrate the extensive areas of damage. Can I sue them over this-- they were obviously hiding the fact that their dogs peed all over the place for years?

JPM

Right before we bought our first house we had it inspected... a few minor problems but it got a good report from the inspector. About two months after we moved in we found out that we had a mouse problem. The next spring we found out that we had a bad problem with carpenter ants... no structural damage to the house but a LOT of ants. The exterminator said after he sprayed he found something like 6 queens... We went back to our attorney who helped us with the closing and she told us that we bought the house as-is so there was basically nothing we could do. They had disclosed that at one time they had carpenter ants but said they were gone... they obviously lied... still nothing we could do. We could have gone after the inspector but the limit of his liability was the cost of the inspection... which we probably would have gotten back but decided that it wasn't worth the effort. Your best bet is to replace the carpets and hope that it's not soaked through to the sub floor. Expensive... yes, but that's part of the "joy" of owning a home.

You can sue for almost anything but will you prevail? You'll need to prove in court that the seller hide a flaw. Did you specifically ask if there was pet urine in the carpet? He may have believed that the cleaning took care of the issue so he committed no fraud. It's 50/50 depending on the judge. You will not get new carpeting out of this since you bought used carpet to begin with. It would be prorated.

It was used carpet. Eat the expense and get new floor covering. I changed everything when I bought my current home. The first thing to go were the toilet seats!

I would bet on you not having a case, you had the right to a full home inspection, and if they had them cleaned, and they appeared fine and even was OK for you for many months.

At this point they are your carpets.