Wet basement not disclosed

i live in the state of missouri and purchased a home in august of 1999. on the disclosure form the section for flooding/water in the basement (which is finished) was clearly marked to show there had been no water problems. since we purchased the home, the finished basement has had ground water on at least eight separate occasions. naturally, homeowners insurance doesn't cover the problems this has caused to the carpet and pad or the cost of correcting the problem by having a drain installed on the exterior of the house. But the insurance adjuster, water damage contractor and the waterproofing contractor all concurred that this was definitely not the first time this problem had occurred. in fact all said it was obvious, due to the rotting tack strips and other signs, that it had happened repeatedly. my question is, do we have any recourse to force the sellers to pay for the necessary repairs and the resulting damage? to this point we have tried to handle the problem ourselves. however, i can't keep replacing the pad and drying the carpet everytime we have a rainfall of any significance. please help. what should i do?

[HomeGuru]

You have recourse against the Seller.
In order to fix the problem you must fix the cause of the problem. Replacing the carpet does nothing to stop the cause of the problem. You should have an engineer and/or waterproofing inspect the problem and come up with a solution.

thank you for the help. so they would be liable for the cost of the installation of an exterior drain. what about the cost of the pad and carpet and the numerous hours of clean up (water extraction, dryer and dehumidifier rental, etc.)? or would that still be our expense?

[HomeGuru]

If an arbitrator or judge finds the Seller guilty, then you can have a chance to get reimbursed.