Buyer's Agent Fiduciary Duty

[KSarchett]

YOUR STATE NAME - Delaware - We recently purchased a home which had a disclosed history of basement water seepage, supposedly fixed. We requested that a licensed basement contractor check it out and certify that it was leakproof and stressed of what great importance assurance on this was to us as we will need to resell in 3 years. Our realtor said he would take care of it. One month prior to closing he advised the contractor had certified it and he was in possessionof the letter, no problem. We see the letter for the first time at closing and states this is to certify that "as far as I can tell" "there doesn't appear to be CURRENTLY any moisture". Not what we wanted but we weren't gutsy enough to call off the closing in mid meeting. Within a month the basement is taking in water and none of our low cost efforts to remedy the situation have worked. I call the contractor who wrote the letter and he says he doesn't do or certify basements, just wrote the letter for his buddy -- OUR realtor. When I open the phone book there are dozens of basement contractors advertising they do basement certification. I should also mention we paid full asking price for this house and would have had no problem asking that the sellers pay for a significant repair job. Was our realtor legally negligent and/or did he breach his fiduciary duty to us or should we not have trusted him to take care of the situation? I appreciate any input. (Sorry so long!)

Kathy Sarchett

 

[HomeGuru]

YOUR STATE NAME - Delaware - We recently purchased a home which had a disclosed history of basement water seepage, supposedly fixed. We requested that a licensed basement contractor check it out and certify that it was leakproof and stressed of what great importance assurance on this was to us as we will need to resell in 3 years. Our realtor said he would take care of it. One month prior to closing he advised the contractor had certified it and he was in possessionof the letter, no problem. We see the letter for the first time at closing and states this is to certify that "as far as I can tell" "there doesn't appear to be CURRENTLY any moisture". Not what we wanted but we weren't gutsy enough to call off the closing in mid meeting. Within a month the basement is taking in water and none of our low cost efforts to remedy the situation have worked. I call the contractor who wrote the letter and he says he doesn't do or certify basements, just wrote the letter for his buddy -- OUR realtor. When I open the phone book there are dozens of basement contractors advertising they do basement certification. I should also mention we paid full asking price for this house and would have had no problem asking that the sellers pay for a significant repair job. Was our realtor legally negligent and/or did he breach his fiduciary duty to us or should we not have trusted him to take care of the situation? I appreciate any input. (Sorry so long!)

Kathy Sarchett

**A: Dear Kathy,
the Realtor and the contractor are both in hot water.
To list the causes of action would take me awhile so I refer you to read the Realtor Code of Ethics www.nar.realtor.com and the State regulations governing licensed real estate agents and contractors.
THen write a short letter of explanation similar to this post using the nformation as a guide and send it certified rrr mail directly to the principal broker of the real estate company requesting a response within 15 days of receipt.
Keep us posted. I would like to see both the real estate agent and contractor pay for their actions.