S
shaylahc
Guest
Well I already filed my small claims case, so don't tell me I have no chance of winning LOLOLOLOL.
Basically what happened is that in September of this year we went into contract on a house. We were presented with the property disclosure before we went into contract that basically stated that the house was free of defects and that the homeowners had no prior knowledge of problems.
During the home inspection massive wood rot damage was discovered. It was not readily apparent upon inspection because everything had been covered in a fresh coat of paint, and many of the rotting areas had been filled in with caulk. At first the sellers tried to blame it on the painters. A contractor was hired to fix the damage and at that point it was discovered that the extent of the damage was *so* severe that the framing of the house had been damaged and some of the pieces of the frame would need replacing. Also, the contractor showed me evidence that someone had been behind the siding before, proof that the sellers had known about the problem. At this point the sellers changed their story (once again) and said that they had called the builder (who has since gone out of business) to come out for the problem once before and they thought it was fixed and that is why they did not declare it on the property disclosure.
There was a clause in the contract that said if the damage discovered upon inspection was greater than $3000 that we could walk away and get a return of our earnest money which we did. However we were stuck with $970 in fees for lawyers, the appraisal, the pest inspection, the home inspection, and other fees relating to the transaction. I feel that the seller defrauded us by not revealing on the property disclosure that they knew the home had a past history of water seepage problems. We have extensive photographic evidence of the home, both before and during the repairs, which we feel can prove that the sellers knew about the problem and attempted to cover it up. I am going to try and make a case that we would have never have gone into contract on the home (and thus never incurred the $970 in fees) if the sellers had been upfront about the problem. I am an asthmatic and would never have put in an offer on a home with a past history of a water seepage problem.
One of the problems is that the seller no longer lives here. They relocated to another state about 3 mos ago, although the property in question (which was their primary residence for 6 years) is still for sale. I wrote a letter to the judge (because the state that I live in, NC, requires that you sue the defendant in the county where they live, which would be impossible since they live in VA now. I included the realtor in the suit since she lives locally and I read that according to NC law if you have multiple defendants you can sue in the county where one lives and the others must go there). I also researched what constitiutes a resident in VA and they must reside there for 6 mos to be considered a resident....
I am collecting all my evidence, and trying to get statements from people like the home inspector, contractor, etc. Any other advice? Do I have a chance?
I figured I could at least TRY and recoup some of the costs we were out :-( I just thank God we didn't end up buying the damn house and finding out later about the damage.
Michele
Basically what happened is that in September of this year we went into contract on a house. We were presented with the property disclosure before we went into contract that basically stated that the house was free of defects and that the homeowners had no prior knowledge of problems.
During the home inspection massive wood rot damage was discovered. It was not readily apparent upon inspection because everything had been covered in a fresh coat of paint, and many of the rotting areas had been filled in with caulk. At first the sellers tried to blame it on the painters. A contractor was hired to fix the damage and at that point it was discovered that the extent of the damage was *so* severe that the framing of the house had been damaged and some of the pieces of the frame would need replacing. Also, the contractor showed me evidence that someone had been behind the siding before, proof that the sellers had known about the problem. At this point the sellers changed their story (once again) and said that they had called the builder (who has since gone out of business) to come out for the problem once before and they thought it was fixed and that is why they did not declare it on the property disclosure.
There was a clause in the contract that said if the damage discovered upon inspection was greater than $3000 that we could walk away and get a return of our earnest money which we did. However we were stuck with $970 in fees for lawyers, the appraisal, the pest inspection, the home inspection, and other fees relating to the transaction. I feel that the seller defrauded us by not revealing on the property disclosure that they knew the home had a past history of water seepage problems. We have extensive photographic evidence of the home, both before and during the repairs, which we feel can prove that the sellers knew about the problem and attempted to cover it up. I am going to try and make a case that we would have never have gone into contract on the home (and thus never incurred the $970 in fees) if the sellers had been upfront about the problem. I am an asthmatic and would never have put in an offer on a home with a past history of a water seepage problem.
One of the problems is that the seller no longer lives here. They relocated to another state about 3 mos ago, although the property in question (which was their primary residence for 6 years) is still for sale. I wrote a letter to the judge (because the state that I live in, NC, requires that you sue the defendant in the county where they live, which would be impossible since they live in VA now. I included the realtor in the suit since she lives locally and I read that according to NC law if you have multiple defendants you can sue in the county where one lives and the others must go there). I also researched what constitiutes a resident in VA and they must reside there for 6 mos to be considered a resident....
I am collecting all my evidence, and trying to get statements from people like the home inspector, contractor, etc. Any other advice? Do I have a chance?
I figured I could at least TRY and recoup some of the costs we were out :-( I just thank God we didn't end up buying the damn house and finding out later about the damage.
Michele
Thanks