AnnoyedUtahn
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Utah
I purchased a "flipped" house in Utah several months ago. The house was clearly advertised as having the renovation work "all done with city permits and inspections." About 5 months after moving in, I received an open permit notice stating that a "Notice of Non-compliance" was being recorded on the title of the property and turned over to the Salt Lake County District Attorney, due to some of the work on the house not having had the required inspections completed prior to sale. I contacted my real estate agent and escrow officer. They contacted the seller and discovered that he has no documentation to verify the inspection, or so much as a receipt for an inspection order. In other words, the inspection never took place, was overlooked by the real estate agents and title insurance companies, all of whom evidently relied on nothing more than the seller's "word" that the inspections were done. They say I am responsible, despite the seller lying about the inspections. From what I understand, this is accurate, but the seller could potentially be sued in small claims court for the additional costs incurred for the permit renewal and inspection that now has to take place (in addition to whatever costs and damages that may result from having to potentially take down walls or dismantle parts of the house to make inspection visible). Is this something that buyers in these situations typically pursue legally, or does it often turn out that the cost of such action is higher than the necessary work?
Additionally, in reviewing some of the documentation for the purchase of the house, I have noticed that some items, such as the Seller's Property Disclosure (Land) and Seller's Disclosure are signed by the buyers (my husband and I) but were never signed by the seller. During the purchase process, the seller was late on a couple of the signature deadlines, and each time we noticed that he had not signed a document or signed on time, we brought it up with our real estate agent and were assured that the issue was being worked on. Since the documentation had to be reviewed by the mortgage company in order for us to get our loan, we assumed that those documents were eventually signed and taken care of between our real estate agent and the seller, thinking that the loan couldn't be approved if the necessary documentation lacked the seller's signature. It seems that many of the parties involved in this transaction somehow managed to overlook what appear to be critical components which we assumed were either taken care of (per the real estate agent's word) or would be caught by the title insurance or mortgage company somewhere along the line, and we never thought to review the paperwork to verify that it was signed by the seller since we were assured that it was and thought we wouldn't be able to purchase the house at all without the signatures. Is it possible or legal for a house to be sold in Utah without the seller's signature on the Seller's Property Disclosure (Land) and Seller's Disclosure forms? We are uncertain how to proceed from here because it seems like we can't rely on our title insurance company or real estate agent to clarify why these critical pieces of information were somehow overlooked during the purchase process.
In communicating with our real estate agent and escrow officer regarding this matter, the responses from both have been fairly dismissive and in some of the research I have done, an issue such as open permits on the property should have been caught, or at the very least, disclosed, by the escrow officer, indicating that she may have neglected to properly do her job here, hence the very dismissive "not my problem, take care of it yourself" attitude she has communicated in response to this issue. To the best of our knowledge, and based on the clarity of language representing the house's renovation work as "all done with city permits and inspections," we did not have any reason to check into the status of permits on the house ourselves, as it was stated to not be an issue (though perhaps we are just gullible first-time homebuyers).
Any advice or perspective as to how best to handle this matter would be greatly appreciated. The seller we purchased the house from flips homes professionally, and I would hope that something could be done to ensure that he is not able to get away with lying about the houses he flips to other buyers.
I purchased a "flipped" house in Utah several months ago. The house was clearly advertised as having the renovation work "all done with city permits and inspections." About 5 months after moving in, I received an open permit notice stating that a "Notice of Non-compliance" was being recorded on the title of the property and turned over to the Salt Lake County District Attorney, due to some of the work on the house not having had the required inspections completed prior to sale. I contacted my real estate agent and escrow officer. They contacted the seller and discovered that he has no documentation to verify the inspection, or so much as a receipt for an inspection order. In other words, the inspection never took place, was overlooked by the real estate agents and title insurance companies, all of whom evidently relied on nothing more than the seller's "word" that the inspections were done. They say I am responsible, despite the seller lying about the inspections. From what I understand, this is accurate, but the seller could potentially be sued in small claims court for the additional costs incurred for the permit renewal and inspection that now has to take place (in addition to whatever costs and damages that may result from having to potentially take down walls or dismantle parts of the house to make inspection visible). Is this something that buyers in these situations typically pursue legally, or does it often turn out that the cost of such action is higher than the necessary work?
Additionally, in reviewing some of the documentation for the purchase of the house, I have noticed that some items, such as the Seller's Property Disclosure (Land) and Seller's Disclosure are signed by the buyers (my husband and I) but were never signed by the seller. During the purchase process, the seller was late on a couple of the signature deadlines, and each time we noticed that he had not signed a document or signed on time, we brought it up with our real estate agent and were assured that the issue was being worked on. Since the documentation had to be reviewed by the mortgage company in order for us to get our loan, we assumed that those documents were eventually signed and taken care of between our real estate agent and the seller, thinking that the loan couldn't be approved if the necessary documentation lacked the seller's signature. It seems that many of the parties involved in this transaction somehow managed to overlook what appear to be critical components which we assumed were either taken care of (per the real estate agent's word) or would be caught by the title insurance or mortgage company somewhere along the line, and we never thought to review the paperwork to verify that it was signed by the seller since we were assured that it was and thought we wouldn't be able to purchase the house at all without the signatures. Is it possible or legal for a house to be sold in Utah without the seller's signature on the Seller's Property Disclosure (Land) and Seller's Disclosure forms? We are uncertain how to proceed from here because it seems like we can't rely on our title insurance company or real estate agent to clarify why these critical pieces of information were somehow overlooked during the purchase process.
In communicating with our real estate agent and escrow officer regarding this matter, the responses from both have been fairly dismissive and in some of the research I have done, an issue such as open permits on the property should have been caught, or at the very least, disclosed, by the escrow officer, indicating that she may have neglected to properly do her job here, hence the very dismissive "not my problem, take care of it yourself" attitude she has communicated in response to this issue. To the best of our knowledge, and based on the clarity of language representing the house's renovation work as "all done with city permits and inspections," we did not have any reason to check into the status of permits on the house ourselves, as it was stated to not be an issue (though perhaps we are just gullible first-time homebuyers).
Any advice or perspective as to how best to handle this matter would be greatly appreciated. The seller we purchased the house from flips homes professionally, and I would hope that something could be done to ensure that he is not able to get away with lying about the houses he flips to other buyers.
