Fraud - seller's disclosure

[madinleawood]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Kansas

My wife and I have recently found that at least three items on the seller's disclosure were outright lies. We bought the house in 2003, and none of the problems are incredibly serious (that we know of). What pisses me off is that the seller lied about at least three of the items (we have proof - written). My feeling is that if there is one lie, or three lies, on the disclosure statement...then EVERY answer is a lie and therefore I am not at all sure of what I paid a premium for a couple years ago.

What recourse do I have if any? Damages would be hard to compute simply because I am not exactly sure as to the extent of the problems since the disclosure is fiction. Are punitive damages every awarded in these issues?

[CAlandlords]

Originally Posted by madinleawood

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Kansas

My wife and I have recently found that at least three items on the seller's disclosure were outright lies. We bought the house in 2003, and none of the problems are incredibly serious (that we know of). What pisses me off is that the seller lied about at least three of the items (we have proof - written). My feeling is that if there is one lie, or three lies, on the disclosure statement...then EVERY answer is a lie and therefore I am not at all sure of what I paid a premium for a couple years ago.

What recourse do I have if any? Damages would be hard to compute simply because I am not exactly sure as to the extent of the problems since the disclosure is fiction. Are punitive damages every awarded in these issues?

Well, what are the things they lied about? What are the damages you have suffered because of these lies that you have caught?

[madinleawood]

They lied about Wood rot.

They lied about knowledge of water in the basement.

They lied about the chimmney insert.

They lied about Radon. On the disclosure they put "Do not know" for the radon question. We had the house tested, Radon was found, and we made them put in a mitigation system.

We happened to meet the people that sold the house to the people we bought it from. We had in common that the people they sold to and we bought from were incredibly difficult. We commented that the house must look a lot different to them as the people we bought from "had done significant updating". We had been told up to $50k plus. We found out that many of the upgrades had been done earlier, and that many ISSUES such as Radon, the chimney, water, etc had been brought up in closing when the house was purchased (to negotiate a better price) and not disclosed to us when we bought. We can document all of this.

I am not sure about the damages. We paid a premium for this house in a desirable area. We bought based upon some belief that the seller was not a liar. Now we will have to disclose all of these items on our sale, which could potentially hurt the value. Additionally I am not sure what else is fraudulent on the disclosure - As far as i am concerned one blatent lie makes the entire piece of paper worthless - this is not an oversight...it is fraud.

[CAlandlords]

Originally Posted by madinleawood

They lied about Wood rot.

They lied about knowledge of water in the basement.

They lied about the chimmney insert.

They lied about Radon. On the disclosure they put "Do not know" for the radon question. We had the house tested, Radon was found, and we made them put in a mitigation system.

We happened to meet the people that sold the house to the people we bought it from. We had in common that the people they sold to and we bought from were incredibly difficult. We commented that the house must look a lot different to them as the people we bought from "had done significant updating". We had been told up to $50k plus. We found out that many of the upgrades had been done earlier, and that many ISSUES such as Radon, the chimney, water, etc had been brought up in closing when the house was purchased (to negotiate a better price) and not disclosed to us when we bought. We can document all of this.

I am not sure about the damages. We paid a premium for this house in a desirable area. We bought based upon some belief that the seller was not a liar. Now we will have to disclose all of these items on our sale, which could potentially hurt the value. Additionally I am not sure what else is fraudulent on the disclosure -

Hire an attorney. You'll need to see the disclosures given to them from the previous sellers and any reports done when they bought the house.

Originally Posted by madinleawood

As far as i am concerned one blatent lie makes the entire piece of paper worthless

Focus on the facts instead of letting your emotions about this get the best of you.