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Sellers lied on disclosure

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the money pit

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Michigan

We purchased our home in August 2004 and in January we noticed we have a water leak in the basement, the basement is finished completely with a kitchen and full bathroom. There was a leak on one wall and another one coming from under the kitchen cabinets, we removed the carpet and drywall on one wall and found a very large crack on the wall that the previous owners had put a concrete patch on. The carpet had large stains on the back (much larger that what was now wet), the carpet pad, framing, insulation, molding and drywall had mold on them, then we had to remove the kitchen cabinets and found that they had also patched a section where the wall meets the floor and water was coming in their also (again everything had mold on it). They signed their sellers disclosure that there was "NO" evidence of water in the basement. In order to have it waterproofed we had to expose all the walls and when we did that we found a total of 26 leaks, most coming from where the floor meets the wall. Our home inspector couldn't find anything because because of "limited visibility". We paid $7500.00 to have it waterproofed and now have to come up with the money to refinish, estimates range from $9000.00 to $18,000.00 to put it back to "as purchased state". :confused: Is there anything that we can do legally to recoup some of this money, we have been trying unsuccefully to resolve this issue but they are not responding so we are considering legal action if possible. I would have never bought the house if we had known it had a leak, or at least lowered the price to cover the repairs I knew that waterproofing is costly. I will tell you one thing I will never buy another house with a finished basement. This is not the only thing they lied about we have had to replace the furnace it had a cracked heat exchange (that they said was 3 years old but never came up the the proof of purchase) and were to have repaired by closing.
 
Last edited:


HomeGuru

Senior Member
the money pit said:
What is the name of your state? Michigan

We purchased our home in August 2004 and in January we noticed we have a water leak in the basement, the basement is finished completely with a kitchen and full bathroom. There was a leak on one wall and another one coming from under the kitchen cabinets, we removed the carpet and drywall on one wall and found a very large crack on the wall that the previous owners had put a concrete patch on. The carpet had large stains on the back (much larger that what was now wet), the carpet pad, framing, insulation, molding and drywall had mold on them, then we had to remove the kitchen cabinets and found that they had also patched a section where the wall meets the floor and water was coming in their also (again everything had mold on it). They signed their sellers disclosure that there was "NO" evidence of water in the basement. In order to have it waterproofed we had to expose all the walls and when we did that we found a total of 26 leaks, most coming from where the floor meets the wall. Our home inspector couldn't find anything because because of "limited visibility". We paid $7500.00 to have it waterproofed and now have to come up with the money to refinish, estimates range from $9000.00 to $18,000.00 to put it back to "as purchased state". :confused: Is there anything that we can do legally to recoup some of this money, we have been trying unsuccefully to resolve this issue but they are not responding so we are considering legal action if possible. I would have never bought the house if we had known it had a leak, or at least lowered the price to cover the repairs I knew that waterproofing is costly. I will tell you one thing I will never buy another house with a finished basement. This is not the only thing they lied about we have had to replace the furnace it had a cracked heat exchange (that they said was 3 years old but never came up the the proof of purchase) and were to have repaired by closing.

**A: explain "limited visibility".
 

the money pit

Junior Member
"limited visibility" because the walls were covered by drywall, cabinets and built in shelving units he could not see the condition of the cement walls.
 

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