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Contractor suing for work done before closing.

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DQ2inCT

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Massachusetts

We purchased a home in September of this year. When we first viewed the home with the seller's real estate agent back in July, we were made aware of a well pipe leak that was flooding the basement. The seller's agent told us that the seller was still trying to get someone to fix it. We assumed that it would be fixed before we purchased the home.
After we signed the purchase agreement, we had the home inspected. The well pipe still had yet to be repaired and we brought this problem to the attention of the seller's agent. We were told that we were buying the house "as is" and that the buyer was not responsible for the repair. At that time we requested and obtained an extension on the purchase agreement so that we could negotiate this issue. During this period, the seller's agent offered to have a plumbing contractor inspect the leak and give us a quote for the repairs. The seller's agent also told us that the seller would not agree to any further extensions of the purchase agreement since they had a backup offer on the property for more than our contracted price. We decided to proceed with the purchase and released the seller from the responsibility of the well pipe leak. Several days later, the seller's agent called to inform us that the plumber had repaired the leak and that we were responsible for the payment of the repairs. We had never authorized any work to be done and we didn't have permission from the seller to authorize any work in the house. We were also skeptical that the plumber had repaired the leak since it appeared to be in an underground pipe and his repair had involved a hose clamp on an above ground pipe. At no time did we ever agree to pay for the plumbing repair.

A week later the seller granted us permission to enter the house to clean and remove carpeting. We found the basement flooded since the plumber's repair had not fixed the initial problem of the leaking underground well pipe. We immediately called both the seller's agent and the plumber and were told that we would need to excavate to find and repair the leak. We did ask for permission to turn off the well pump to stop any further flooding, which we did at that time. We decided to wait until after the closing to inspect the leak problem ourselves.

After the closing we found and repaired the leaking well pipe ourselves in less than an hour. By this time we had received an invoice from the plumber for the repair that had been done before the closing that involved the replacement of the hose clamp. My husband called the plumber to discuss the amount of the invoice, the fact that we didn't request or authorize the repair, and that the repair did not solve the leak problem. The plumber was belligerent and told my husband that he would see us in court. A few weeks later we received a summons from small claims court that we were being sued by the plumber. On the summons the plumber claims to have an e-mail from the seller's agent that we had taken responsibility for the repair. I did search all of our correspondence with the seller's agent and I did find an e-mail in which we were addressing the seller's denial of another purchase agreement extension and we did state that we would then "take responsibility of the well leak repair". This e-mail was sent before the seller's agent had the plumber repair the hose clamp. We never requested or authorized any work to be done on the house, nor did we ever have permission from the seller for any such repairs. Obviously, taking responsibility for a repair and taking responsibility for the “payment” of a repair are totally different. Unfortunately, the plumber was misled by the seller’s real estate agent. However, the plumber should never have proceeded with the repair without having a signed work order.

We are scheduled to meet in court on December 29. This case is complicated and takes a while to explain. How can we present our defense in the most effective and efficient manner?

Thank you for your help.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 



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