Disclosure/Inspection Problem

What is the name of your state? Arkansas

On 2/28/03, we bought a new home with a heat pump. Inspector found heat system satisfactory. On the cold morning of closing, sellers had htg & air svc tech there when we arrived to do final walk-thru because heat pump was grinding and snorting. Tech found nothing wrong with heat pump and real estate agent said sellers agreed to take care of any problems that arose shortly after closing. After several more cold days, we tried to use heat strips by putting thermostat in emerg mode. Called the same svc tech, and he now tells us seller refused heat strips when he initially installed heat pump and said he would use buck stove for back-up heat. Svc tech says sellers told him on the morning of closing "to keep his mouth shut." The sellers say now that they did not have to disclose that buck stove was their supplemental heat source for the heat pump. The inspector couldn't have tested the thermostat because he would have felt there was no emergency source heat. When our insurance agent took pictures, our real estate agent was there and told her that the buck stove was "purely decorative," so I'm reasonably sure he knew nothing. I'm told by two htg & air companies that heat pump systems come with heat strips. I'm told by another real estate agent that they've never encountered a home without a supplementary heat source and would not consider a buck stove to fill that bill. Do we have any recourse, in your opinion?

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by cforr
What is the name of your state? Arkansas

On 2/28/03, we bought a new home with a heat pump. Inspector found heat system satisfactory. On the cold morning of closing, sellers had htg & air svc tech there when we arrived to do final walk-thru because heat pump was grinding and snorting. Tech found nothing wrong with heat pump and real estate agent said sellers agreed to take care of any problems that arose shortly after closing. After several more cold days, we tried to use heat strips by putting thermostat in emerg mode. Called the same svc tech, and he now tells us seller refused heat strips when he initially installed heat pump and said he would use buck stove for back-up heat. Svc tech says sellers told him on the morning of closing "to keep his mouth shut." The sellers say now that they did not have to disclose that buck stove was their supplemental heat source for the heat pump. The inspector couldn't have tested the thermostat because he would have felt there was no emergency source heat. When our insurance agent took pictures, our real estate agent was there and told her that the buck stove was "purely decorative," so I'm reasonably sure he knew nothing. I'm told by two htg & air companies that heat pump systems come with heat strips. I'm told by another real estate agent that they've never encountered a home without a supplementary heat source and would not consider a buck stove to fill that bill. Do we have any recourse, in your opinion?

**A: yes, put the heat on the Sellers.

Thanks so much for the advice. We've asked our real estate agent to act as a go-between to see if we can work things out with the sellers without litigation and it appears favorable thus far.

[HomeGuru]

Good luck to you and keep the heat on.