No Disclosure

What is the name of your state? Florida
We planned to buy a new home from a builder. Found out at the final walk through that the house had been vandalized, the dishwasher stolen, and the water pipe ran for two days until every room in the house was flooded. Turns out that this happened prior to us signing the contract. Seller obviously knew and our buyers agent knew. Noone told us. When we overheard about the flood at the final walkthough we asked for mold/mildew inspection, 1 day prior to scheduled closing, builder said no time. We didn't close. They kept our deposit. What is our legal recourse?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by sncback

What is the name of your state? Florida
We planned to buy a new home from a builder. Found out at the final walk through that the house had been vandalized, the dishwasher stolen, and the water pipe ran for two days until every room in the house was flooded. Turns out that this happened prior to us signing the contract. Seller obviously knew and our buyers agent knew. Noone told us. When we overheard about the flood at the final walkthough we asked for mold/mildew inspection, 1 day prior to scheduled closing, builder said no time. We didn't close. They kept our deposit. What is our legal recourse?

**A: hire a construction litigation attorney and sue.

I have been thinking about your advice and I thank you for your reply. The problem is I have been to two attorneys already. One gp and one real estate attorney. The first demanded our $ back by letter and didn't receive a response from the builder so he dropped us. The second said we would risk alot by sueing wanted a $2500 retainer and discourgaged us from sueing. I think the builder commited a fraud by not disclosing the problem to us. Kept our $1200 and cost us an addiitional $3000 in the delay of the movers our furniture ( extra storage). Not to mention hotels for a month, a bed to sleep on etc when we moved into this house with no furniture. All in all they cost us about $8000. The RE attorney suggests we file in small claims court with a limit of $5000. I don't want to file a small claim and I want an attorney to represent us. Is a construction attorney different than a real estate attorney? And does that fact that the builder did not disclose have any reprecussions to them at all? Thank you.