Homeowners: have you ever had to pursue the seller for nondisclosure?

[Orrex]

Or for making outright false claims about the house?

Our seller claimed that the roof was about three years old, but now its leaking like a seive, and a contractor has told us that it needs to be replaced altogether. In addition, a 4x6 section of ceiling has fallen because of the leak.

How do I pursue this? Do I need an attorney to start? Are there steps I can take before that?

Yes, I can google this, but I wanted to see if anyone has had direct experience of this sort of thing first.

Your insight is appreciated.

[mnhtnbb]

1. Go back to the realtor who sold you the house and request the

disclosure sheets that the seller had to fill out when listing the house.
If you had a home inspection, get out the report and find out what the
inspector said regarding the age/condition of the roof.

[madinmaryland]

2. Did you have a home inspection prior to buying the house? That would have been noted

in the inspection of the house. Also request the disclosure statement as noted by mnhtnbb.

[Major Nikon]

3. Was this claim made in writing?

If not, you may be facing an uphill battle trying to make a claim against the previous owner.

It sounds as if you didn't have a home inspector check out the house before you bought it or if you did they didn't do their job. If the later is the case, you may have a claim against the inspector.

[benld74]

4. It seems at times the ONLY thing I did right about our house,,,

was having it professionally inspected. The seller, although a company, stated the house had been piered. I mentioned that to the inspector. He looked for the piering, could NOT find any evidence. They HAD to pier the ENTIRE house. Even 20 years ago, that had to cost them BIG TIME!

[mulsh]

5. The above posters are right, review the disclosure documents. If the work was that recent

the home owner should be able to provide receipts and what ever warranty applies. Talk to the owner/seller, talk to some of the neighbors and see if they know if the previous home owner had this problem. By all means find a real estate attorney and at least have an initial consultation. They're normally given free of charge. ( at least here in CA)

We had a similar problem with some non disclosed flooding in our garage. It turned out a real estate agent had removed a plastic drain to the street from our next door neighbor's downspout when he was that that house. We did all of the above.Fortunately the new neighbors were as concerned as we were and the repair cost about $25.00. My wife and I met while working as paralegals, the last thing we ever want to do is sue someone.

[hedgehog]

6. We were told that the house had been re-wired,

and were proudly shown the circuit breaker box in the basement. I don't recall when we saw the knob and wire installation in the attic......

I really don't think the people were trying to scam us - in their mind replacing the fuse box with a breaker box was re-wiring.

[Orrex]

7. Thank you, all, for your responses

All things considered, we're just going to go ahead and have the roof replaced. We're in a position to be able to do so, and we don't have the will to pursue it in court. Also, we don't really have the time--the leak is serious and ongoing.

We had already obtained several estimates and are going with a guy who's done a lot of work in our neighborhood and who's well known to my neighbors; they've all vouched for him, and he seems honest from all of my interactions with him.

Perhaps we'll pursue the matter after the fact, but for right now we can't afford to wait while the situation worsens.