do i have any right to pursue legal action against the previous homeowner?

What is the name of your state? il.
i purchased a house 2.5 months ago and recently found a valve leading to toitet was leaking and caused damage to the celing of down stairs. The owner of down stairs told us that this happened (at exact the same place and exact the same valve)just shortly before we bought the house. at the time of inspection, it seemed that inspector did not find the problem. the previous owner did not mention what had happened before (disclosure shows everything is ok). if we knew this leaking damage, we would have not bought this house. do i have any right to pursue legal action against the previous homeowner?

[JETX]

Of course you have that right. Almost anyone can sue almost anyone over almost anything.

The question becomes are you willing to spend the $$ and time it will take to litigate what is probably a fairly low cost issue.

How much are your 'damages' if this were to be an issue of failure to disclose.

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by miya2004
What is the name of your state? il.
i purchased a house 2.5 months ago and recently found a valve leading to toitet was leaking and caused damage to the celing of down stairs. The owner of down stairs told us that this happened (at exact the same place and exact the same valve)just shortly before we bought the house. at the time of inspection, it seemed that inspector did not find the problem. the previous owner did not mention what had happened before (disclosure shows everything is ok). if we knew this leaking damage, we would have not bought this house. do i have any right to pursue legal action against the previous homeowner?

**A: what did the homeowner tell you when you told them about the problem?

thank you very much JETX and HomeGuru for your reply.

JETX:
the damages to the downstairs owner will be estimated on this friday and i have to pay for this. i guess it is not less than $1000. as i said in my last post, if i knew what had happened before, i would have not bought this house. in this point, can i win if i sue the previous owner?

HomeGuru:
i can't find the previous owner because he sold this house through a agent. i came to the agent and asked previous owner's tel number, the agent refused to give and said it is my responsibility to pay for the damage. please tell me what should i do?

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by miya2004
thank you very much JETX and HomeGuru for your reply.

JETX:
the damages to the downstairs owner will be estimated on this friday and i have to pay for this. i guess it is not less than $1000. as i said in my last post, if i knew what had happened before, i would have not bought this house. in this point, can i win if i sue the previous owner?

HomeGuru:
i can't find the previous owner because he sold this house through a agent. i came to the agent and asked previous owner's tel number, the agent refused to give and said it is my responsibility to pay for the damage. please tell me what should i do?

**A: and where is YOUR real estate agent?

HomeGuru:

my realtor is just a beginer like he said. he does not have any idea about it. in fact, we were pushed to buy this house. we even did not have time to do research (just one month from the begining to the closing) and we don't have experience to do the research. it seems that once the realtor got $$ for selling the house, he does not care about anything! please give some advice how to deal with this frustrated issue.

[JETX]

"if we knew this leaking damage, we would have not bought this house."

"we were pushed to buy this house. we even did not have time to do research"

Do your really expect us to believe that you were forced into buying this piece of crap house??
Almost every used house purchase has some costs that the new owner must contend with. In this case, you have what is very likely a VERY minor plumbing problem that was allowed to cause damage to the neighbor.
Fix the problem and repair the damage. Then sit back and enjoy the property you were forced to purchase.

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by miya2004
HomeGuru:

my realtor is just a beginer like he said. he does not have any idea about it. in fact, we were pushed to buy this house. we even did not have time to do research (just one month from the begining to the closing) and we don't have experience to do the research. it seems that once the realtor got $$ for selling the house, he does not care about anything! please give some advice how to deal with this frustrated issue.

**A: go and meet with his principal broker and discuss this issue. Then come back and post with info.