Purchased a Lemon...

[Lemon101]

What is the name of your state? PA

First of all I love my house, but...

Purchased my home in April 2006, within a month had a flooded basement, leaking new rubber roof, while leveling the yard discovered contractor used it as a dumping ground and had to pay to have material hauled away and a host of other small issues with the house . The roof was certified since it is new. Roofer refused to fix it claiming it wasn’t his fault the roof was leaking. Roofer not licensed per seller’s realtor agent (seller’s husband). Rain at the end of May caused quite a bit of flooding in basement and signs of mold began to appear along the base of the wall (note – basement is finished with carpeting).) Spent $12,000 to water proof basement, perform mold remediation (up the wall at that point), and refinish the drywall. Now pricing roof repairs (had to deal with the mold first).

Get a call from a city inspector, rehab permit not closed on my house before it was sold. Inspector notes an electrical problem during inspection and contacts electrical contractor and realtor who sold me the house. Realtor needs access to home to get rehab permit closed.

Here is the deal – Realtor in business with wife. Wife purchases home in her name, husband manages rehab, and sells home on behalf of wife. Now that he needs my assistance to close the permit, willing to correct electrical problem (well he has no choice) and get the roofer to fix the roof and ceiling needs patching. However he is not willing to reimburse me for any part of the basement work since he had the house for eight months and didn’t have any water problems (so he claims). However he thinks his cementing a walkway along the house towards the end of the rehab, may have contributed to the problem. Do I have any recourse on the basement or should I just take the work he is offering on the roof and electrical and be glad I have that much help?

[danno6925]

Did you have a home inspection done prior to closing? What does the inspector's report reflect? If you bought the home with the issues disclosed in writing, you're on the hook for the repairs.
I am always wary of any arrangement between seller/realtor/builder/mortgage company, etc that is not stated in writing.

It sounds to me as though the hubby & wife team may be trying to pull a fast one on you. Get yourself an attorney asap.


I am not a lawyer. I have worked in Pa title insurance since 2000.

[Lemon101]

Yes we had an inpsection done. The inspection did not cover the roof. Therefore we asked to have the roof certified and guaranteed, which we got at the closing table. However, when I contacted the roofer he refused to make any corrections.

The inspection showed the basement had previous water penetration, but the realtor said that they did waterproofing before finishing the basement. Now he says, well 'I put up water proof drywall.' Then he said, 'maybe the problem was caused by us cementing the walkway outside the basement. Now the water doesn't run off the property like it is supposed to.'

I will contact a lawyer today.