QUESTION
We purchased a house in the summer to find out the following spring our crawl space keeps standing water in hard rains, is there anything we can do?
Asked on Feb 18th, 2013 on Residential Real Estate - Virginia
More details to this question:
We were never told during the buying process that there were water issues. Our home was inspected with no identified problems. However, the neighbors have informed us that the "flooding" has been an issue since they have lived there, going on 30 years. We have now been in the house nearly three years and the only time we have water issues is in the spring after a hard rain/snow fall. We contacted our real eastate agent, who informed us the only thing we could do would be contact the seller. We contacted the seller and he was of no help, and claimed to know nothing about prior damage. We have had one estimate on fixing the issue of $11,000 and will be getting 2 others this week. Right now we are unsure of what we can do legally, whether it is ground for the seller to take the home back since the issues wer enot disclosed, or if we can attempt to collect the money to fix the issue. Regardless we can't afford $11,000 for something we should have been informed about.
1 ANSWER
You are in a tough situation. Virginia requires sellers to give buyers a disclaimer/disclosure form, which I am certain you received from the realtor probably before the contract was signed or at least at the same time, which told you basically this:"Check it out all you want but don't rely on me-you're on your own." With that language, suing for fraud becomes very very difficult and there are cases out there that hold even when the Seller knows of a problem, they still can't be successfully sued. Why? Because the buyer was warned to check it out as much as possible. If a Seller deliberately conceals a problem, that might work but even that situation is somewhat iffy under the recent cases. It is possible the seller really didn't know if the property was only owned for 3-4 years or so. Oddly enough, I have a house with a similar issue-it's only a problem when there are late winter super heavy rains, that fall upon semi-frozen ground, and we have sometimes gone 5-6 years between occasions when water caused a problem.
Even if successful, it's not a sure thing that you could recover your legal fees, so you could spend $10,000 or more in legal fees, to recover $11,000. My advice is as much practical as legal: If you spend $11,000 and get the problem fixed, it's fixed. If you spend $10,000 or more in legal fees, maybe you win and maybe not, but you're out the legal fees so your net gain is minimal if anything. With interest rates at all time lows, I would explore a home equity loan for $11,000 to fix it. If you are upside down on your mortgage, or have little equity, check with the bank that has your first mortgage as they may be more flexible since your would be taking care of their collateral. Good luck.
Answered on Feb 19th, 2013 at 3:54 PM