Who is responsible if I received a notice from the city stating thaty property has a lien and is considered substandard?

First, your real estate agent was an employee of a real estate broker. The broker is the one who owes you any further assistance. Just because one of its employees left the company does not end the company's responsibility to you. Second, the real estate brokerage company which represented you owed you a duty to thoroughly inspect the property and notify you in writing of any apparent defects and of any apparent sign of possible defects which you might want to further study and inspect, maybe by hiring an expert. Third, the sellers and the sellers' broker owed you a duty to disclose to you, in writing, any defects about which they had actual knowledge and which you could not see by performing a reasonably thorough visual inspection of all accessible portions of the property. That means that if you could have seen it, then the sellers and their broker did not have to tell you about it. Finally, statutes of limitation set deadlines of 2 years for claims against the brokers for failure to discliose, 3 years for claims against the sellers for failure to disclose, and 4 years against the sellers for breach of contract. However, the city can start assessing daily fines for substandard condtioins, assess charges for re-inspecting the property to see if you are fixing the problems, and all those fines and charges become liens on the property. So don't wait. If the sellers and the brokers have been asked to take care of the problems, and they haven't said yes, they'll fix things, then you need to get started on hiring people and applying for permits ASAP. If you don't, instead of being the victim, the city is going to treat you as just another "bad guy," and start punishing you. So what are the problems? If you hire me, the first thing I will want to do is see the PSA, the TDS, the title report, and all the other disclosure documents, and all emails and other communications before and after the sale regarding the problems. I would charge you $300.00 per hour to review all those items and provide you with a strategy and a description of your rights and options. It would take 1-2 hours. Then you can decide what to do next. Dana Sack 510-286-2200