developer's liability for selling non-buildable lot

[sophie600]

i bought a lot at an auction last year that is a newly developed subdivision. every lot was sold the day of the auction as a homesite, being able to accomodate atleast a 3-bedroom, 2-bath house. i since have sold my other home and hired a contractor. when the contractor was having the footers dug, he stopped, noticing that at 14ft down he was still hitting very dark brown soil in striations.he consulted a geo-technical engineer who stated that the soil was non-compactible and suggested a solution involving removing dirt, bringing in rock, etc. this solution to make the lot buildable is going to cost me around $15,000. i only paid $18,000 for the lot. do i have any recourse as far as the auction company, since they developed the land, even if they did not know of the poor soil quality. please help!

 

[HomeGuru]

i bought a lot at an auction last year that is a newly developed subdivision. every lot was sold the day of the auction as a homesite, being able to accomodate atleast a 3-bedroom, 2-bath house. i since have sold my other home and hired a contractor. when the contractor was having the footers dug, he stopped, noticing that at 14ft down he was still hitting very dark brown soil in striations.he consulted a geo-technical engineer who stated that the soil was non-compactible and suggested a solution involving removing dirt, bringing in rock, etc. this solution to make the lot buildable is going to cost me around $15,000. i only paid $18,000 for the lot. do i have any recourse as far as the auction company, since they developed the land, even if they did not know of the poor soil quality. please help!

**A; if the developer and the auction company were on and the same, yes. If the auction company was hired as an agent of the developer, then no.