What action, if any, could we take against our seller?

[screetch]

After we moved in, I noticed all the coach lights on the garage were burnt out, so bought new bulbs. After I replaced the bulbs, one of the lights still wouldn't work, so I am guessing there is some electrical glitch. I was a little annoyed but hadn't thought a whole lot about it since I don't want to spend the money on an electrician coming out to fix it, but the other day I was talking to my neighbor about my house. Specifically, I told her we weren't able to get our gas fireplace to work and I wondered if the houses in our neighborhood (all newish and everyone on our street being 2nd owners) had to get gas lines reconnected when new people moved in. She mentioned the fireplace may never have worked in my house, and then started telling me she knew there were some things that were screwy, including one of the coach lights on the garage. She was good friends with the people who previously lived there and took care of the house for the 10 months that it was up for sale and empty, so she knows the house pretty well. So if she knows the light, and possibly the fireplace and who knows what else were not working, I'm sure the sellers knew it too. But on the disclosure form they filled out, they checked off everything being in good working order. Our house passed everything in the inspection, but I also know that they don't always check everything for various reasons.

So, even though our house technically passed inspection, if there were things that were not working and our sellers knew it and didn't disclose them, is there any recourse? It makes me mad thaat I am going to have to pay for an eletrician to fix our light, and possibly pay someone to fix the fireplace -- if we'd known up front there were problems, we could at least have had them fixed before we moved in and paid for by the seller.

[sparkle&shine]

Unfortunately I don't think you have any recourse. Those things should have been caught during the inspection. I would be pretty mad at whoever did the inspection for you (as well as the owner but things like that should have been found)!

[EmilyBronte]

In my state, there are certain things that the seller must disclose (like known plumbing, roof, electrical issues, for example). If your state has a disclosure form, you should have received it prior to placing an offer on the house. If you never received on, you probably initialed something saying whether or not you did.

The inspector also should have caught these issues. If you did have a home inspection and the inspector didn't mention either of these issues on his report, you might have recourse with the inspector.

I think the only way you could hold the sellers liable at this point would be if they did not disclose a known issue on the property disclosure form - but it would be hard to prove they didn't know about it.

[lml41981]

On the disclosure form, was there a specific area for them to mark that these specific things worked? Like on our form, it specifically asks if the wood burning fireplace is working. It also asks if the gas fireplace works. We checked that our wood one works, but that we don't have a gas fireplace. If they checked that it worked and it didn't - and there is reason to believe that they knew it didn't work, then you might be able to seek repayment for the repairs.

Your best bet would be to discuss it with the inspector. But, no pre-owned home is going to be perfect. There will always be things you need to fix. If this is all you need to fix, then you got out cheap. If there are other things you're having to do, then I might consider trying to recoup.

[KaliLily]

I'd call your realtor and ask him/her about your options. When we had problems with our upstairs A/C, I called the realtor to see if we should call the company that supposedly fixed it before we moved in (a condition of the sale) or contact our home warranty company. Our realtor was a big help in explaining which direction we should go.

Do you have a Home Warranty policy?

[Hello Kitty]

Call your realtor as they will know the laws in your state and your specific situation.

You can try, but I know 100% that I signed a disclosure releasing the home inspector from any sort of liability. Now, I'm assuming in cases of gross negligence we might have something, but I wouldn't have recourse for anything minor.

But, no pre-owned home is going to be perfect
Yep, exactly. And even when you're negotiating fixes after the inspection, there are limits to what can be done.

[screetch]

Thanks everyone.

I think our state (Indiana) must require detailed disclosure forms. It was a front/back page with each part of the house separated with detailed questions and a check-off of works/doesn't work/don't know (something like that, anyway). Every single thing was marked that it worked.

lml41981 -- The thing is, part of the reason we chose this house is that it was immaculate. You can barely tell that it is not brand new, and it was lived in for less than three years by a husband and wife, no kids.

EmilyBronte We did receive the disclosure form before we put an offer on the house. The realtor left copies for people to pick up at showings. I don't know how inspections work in Indiana, but in Florida, at least, inspectors don't seem all that thorough. When we bought our house, several things that should have been caught weren't, and the inspector covered himself by writing things like "can't check outlets on LR wall, sofa in the way". When we sold that house, I was shocked that our toilets didn't come up in the report -- one leaked and both you had to hold down the handle for at least 5 seconds for them to flush. We figured we'd just have it fixed after the inspection since we were so busy with other stuff, but we never had to do anything.

KaliLily - good idea, I think I will call our realtor. I bet she can point me in the right direction, whatever that might be. oh, and no we didn't have a warranty on the house. Most of the appliances left were new, and since it was lived in for only 2.5 years, we didn't press it.

[julietchicago]

Sorry, but as I Realtor I can basically tell you to get out your wallet and suck it up.

Most disclosures, in Illinois anyway, say "To the best of your knowledge" when the seller is disclosing if items are in working order or not. It's a very gray area. To be honest, if you are mad at anyone, be mad at your inspector.

[KaliLily]

I think our state (Indiana) must require detailed disclosure forms. It was a front/back page with each part of the house separated with detailed questions and a check-off of works/doesn't work/don't know (something like that, anyway). Every single thing was marked that it worked.


We had the same thing in Washington, which is where we lived until last December. I remember filling out the multiple pages marking yes, no or don't know. It was exhausting!

Anyway, my point, when we bought our Washington house 7 years ago, the seller marked "don't know" for EVERYTHING! It was like he was afraid to mark yes or no, so maybe there is recourse if you knowingly mark something working when it doesn't.

Good luck! I know how frustrating this kind of thing can be.

[Marie]

So you have one light that isn't working and a fireplace that might need the gas line cleaned out, right? I think you are pretty lucky personally. There's always stuff to fix - even with a new house. We just moved into a fabulous house but there were a few minor things to fix. It is just par for the course. And no matter how good your inspector is, they aren't going to find everything.

Suck it up and pay for the repairs. That's just part of the joy of home ownership.

[Asha]

i agree with others that you are lucky. we have spent close to $3,000 making repairs to our house this year. none of those things came up in inspection, and most inspectors have you sign a liability release form. all i know is that i will never use that inspector again. we also bought the house bc it looked like it was in good shape, but there are many things that you just can't tell bc just bc things are spic and span clean doesn't mean they actually work. my dh wanted to try to sue the owner, but it's just not worth it.