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woodsy1960 · Dec 23, 2007, 06:24 AM

I live in New York State. I just purchased a house that the owner had gutted and remodeled everything and I did not get an independent inspector to come in. I have not even owned this house a year.

There is an upper and lower deck on the back of the house that the previous owner had installed (her son-in-law did the work) and the flashing was never put in now there is thousands of dollars in damage to my home. Homeowners insurance is covering just about everything but the whole backside of my house has to be ripped off and redone. Siding has to come off interior walls, etc.

Is there anyway to go back on these people? Her son-in-law did some real corner cutting and the disclosure statement says that everything was sound structurally. Which, apparently, it was not.

Can I do anything about this? At least have them pay for my deductable for home owners and they also will not cover putting the flashing up because it was never there to begin with. Not to mention we are in the middle of winter and this has to be done now. We are experiencing dramatic heat loss because the back wall has no insulation right now because it got all wet from where the ice melted down the side of the house.

:mad:

excon · Dec 23, 2007, 06:33 AM

Hello woodsy:

I think you're out of gas. The disclosure statement was about "known" defects. In order to collect, you're going to have to prove they "knew". That's going to be hard to do - probably impossible.

Penny wise - Pound foolish.

excon

Fr_Chuck · Dec 23, 2007, 07:38 AM

Why in heavens name would you not spend 300 to 400 dollars when bying a?? Dollar home. I would assume you accepted on contract the home as is or if you had a clause that allowed you to inspect the home, and did not do it, you are just out of luck.

You may even be in worst shape if a lot of other repairs were done and there was no building permits ( something you also should have checked on)
Did you have a real estate person helping you?? Did you have a real estate attoreny, someone really dropped the ball on doing proper background checks before buying this

JudyKayTee · Dec 23, 2007, 07:41 AM

[QUOTE=woodsy1960]I live in New York State. I just purchased a house that the owner had gutted and remodeled everything and I did not get an independent inspector to come in. I have not even owned this house a year.

There is an upper and lower deck on the back of the house that the previous owner had installed (her son-in-law did the work) and the flashing was never put in now there is thousands of dollars in damage to my home. Homeowners insurance is covering just about everything but the whole backside of my house has to be ripped off and redone. Siding has to come off interior walls, etc.

Is there anyway to go back on these people? Her son-in-law did some real corner cutting and the disclosure statement says that everything was sound structurally. Which, apparently, it was not.

Can I do anything about this? At least have them pay for my deductable for home owners and they also will not cover putting the flashing up because it was never there to begin with. Not to mention we are in the middle of winter and this has to be done now. We are experiencing dramatic heat loss because the back wall has no insulation right now because it got all wet from where the ice melted down the side of the house.

You would have to prove there was a defect that they KNEW about and hid from you - the disclosure statement is pretty binding. Too late for you but why would anyone buy a home without having an independent inspector go through it first?