How to cover bases

[gpdddaas]

Montana. Recently sold home and buyers asked for some electrical issues to be address that was found on inspection and listed in inspection report. All items in inspection report where addressed and electrician signed off on repairs, buys accepted and closed on residence. Buyers came back and reported having issues with electrical overloading and turned in bill to real estate company which told us they was going to pay for repairs to keep the buyers happy. Real estate company asked us to contribute money to bill.

Questions.
1. Should we contribute money to pay for unforeseen repairs. It is not a lot of money but are we opening up for potentially more.
2. If we do contribute is there any legal documentation that should be done instead of giving the Real estate company a check.


Thanks for your consideration and expertise.

 

[justalayman]

not nearly enough details to determine if you have any valid concern with liability but if the disclosure was completed honestly (if required) and the buyers signed the typical documents that they are accepting the property as is other than what has been disclosed, it's up to you whether you wish to feed the monster or not.


By paying something you are not required to, you don't open a legal door that makes you liable for everything asked for but it does make you a target.

as to what documentation; if this is not due to a an actual liability on your part, it really doesn't matter as it is simply a gift.

Buyers came back and reported having issues with electrical overloading

I know a bit about electrical installations. If this is the circuit for a specific appliance (AC, water heater, oven/range, etc.), unless something was changed by the buyer after the sale, there was likely a problem before.

if it is a generic circuit (wall plugs), and there were no problems before, they are likely simply plugging in too many appliances on one circuit. Unless you want to pay to rewire the home to split up and add circuits, they simply learn to not overload any given circuit. That would not be something you would be legally liable for. If they are not overloading a circuit, then there are other problems that were likely there prior to the sale.

Such issues that may be present before the sale are difficult to deny knowledge of. If there is a defect that you failed to disclose (given there is a disclosure statement involved) you could have actual liability for the costs.


You know more about the specific situation than I so it would be up to you to determine what applies.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

The other thing I considered not in TG's excellent answer was a service upgrade for 220 to power appliance changes they wanted.