What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania
I recently purchased a townhome and feel as if the realtor tricked or sweet talked me into buying this house. Starting from the beginning, I came to look at the place with my son, and we liked the house, but it was noticeable that it needed some cosmetic work, such as the paint on the fence was pealing, and the back porch roof looked old (house roof is fine), and I told him I was not worried about these small cosmetic issues because I have friends who do remodeling for a living and would gladly help me with these small problems. The house was a foreclosure. The realtor immediately started talking about how nice the house was, and that it was all ready to move into, he convinced me that I could just save the money and not get the home inspection. I said I wanted to get the house inspected, and yet he continued to convince me I did not need it. He also started talking about the offer that we wanted to make on the house. I told him I needed time to think about it, and he insisted that if I did not jump on this opportunity right away that some one else would and I would loose the chance of a lifetime. Anyway,after my son and I talked about it and decided we would make an offer on the house I called the agent and told him that we did want to make an offer, and the amount we were willing to offer. He said he would start the paperwork. A few hours later he called saying he had spoken with the bank who held the foreclosure on the house and they had had an offer higher than I wanted to make, and they refused it, so he convinced me I needed to make a higher bid and if I did they were willing to offer a 1 year home warranty on the house. He reiterated the idea of not needing to have a home inspection leading me to believe that the warranty would cover anything that was wrong with the property. So I went ahead and made the offer he was suggesting. While waiting to hear back if they were going to accept the offer, I called my insurance company to get a quote on homeowners, they came out and looked at the house, but said that they would not insure it, but would not give me a list or tell me why. So I called the agent saying I needed to back out of the offer because I could not get insurance on the place. He assured me this was not a problem and he would help me get the insurance I needed. He gave me the name of an insurance person, who right away quoted me a policy, so I thought this problem was solved. The bank accepted the offer, and shortly thereafter we settled on the house. The day after settlement, I was starting to have the utilities turned on in the house, so that I could move into my new home. As I started to have these utilities turn on, more and more problems were found throughout the home. Starting with frozen and busted water pipes (they were not visible to the naked eye), a frozen and busted water meter, a hot water heater and expansion tank that were both frozen solid. So in other words basically all the plumbing in the house was ruined and needed replaced. Leading up to the fact that the heat in this house is hot water baseboard, and so the furnace or boiler as well as the heating elements throughout the house are also ruined and in need of repair. The house had not been properly winterized, yet they had done things to make it appear it had been even to the point of having the anti-freezing stuff in the toilets and such. So I call the agent to get the information on this home warranty that was promised to me (again being told it would cover all problems with the house) but once calling them and actually speaking to the warranty people I have found out that it only covers problems that happen after I own the home, nothing that was per-existing. So I call the agent to try to figure out what to do, since I have limited income and am a single parent (all of which the agent knew) he said "oh well you bought the house so these things are now your problem, he laughed and said I could always resell the house and then it would be someone else's problem. He even offered the relist the house for me. I have contacted his boss, and his boss's boss, and I am basically being told that since I "chose" not to have the inspection I have no ground to stand on. A month after settling on the house I received a notice that this homeowners insurance policy that his friend had quoted me was being canceled due to the pealing paint on the fence, the condition of the back porch roof etc. So I called the insurance guy to get more info and find out what to do, he once again gave me a new policy, but this one was twice as expensive. The other day I received a notice of cancellation on this 2nd policy as well. Please help as I have no idea what to do or where to go from here, but I feel as if I was tricked and led to believe thing that were not true to get me to buy a house that has so many problems. Thanks
I recently purchased a townhome and feel as if the realtor tricked or sweet talked me into buying this house. Starting from the beginning, I came to look at the place with my son, and we liked the house, but it was noticeable that it needed some cosmetic work, such as the paint on the fence was pealing, and the back porch roof looked old (house roof is fine), and I told him I was not worried about these small cosmetic issues because I have friends who do remodeling for a living and would gladly help me with these small problems. The house was a foreclosure. The realtor immediately started talking about how nice the house was, and that it was all ready to move into, he convinced me that I could just save the money and not get the home inspection. I said I wanted to get the house inspected, and yet he continued to convince me I did not need it. He also started talking about the offer that we wanted to make on the house. I told him I needed time to think about it, and he insisted that if I did not jump on this opportunity right away that some one else would and I would loose the chance of a lifetime. Anyway,after my son and I talked about it and decided we would make an offer on the house I called the agent and told him that we did want to make an offer, and the amount we were willing to offer. He said he would start the paperwork. A few hours later he called saying he had spoken with the bank who held the foreclosure on the house and they had had an offer higher than I wanted to make, and they refused it, so he convinced me I needed to make a higher bid and if I did they were willing to offer a 1 year home warranty on the house. He reiterated the idea of not needing to have a home inspection leading me to believe that the warranty would cover anything that was wrong with the property. So I went ahead and made the offer he was suggesting. While waiting to hear back if they were going to accept the offer, I called my insurance company to get a quote on homeowners, they came out and looked at the house, but said that they would not insure it, but would not give me a list or tell me why. So I called the agent saying I needed to back out of the offer because I could not get insurance on the place. He assured me this was not a problem and he would help me get the insurance I needed. He gave me the name of an insurance person, who right away quoted me a policy, so I thought this problem was solved. The bank accepted the offer, and shortly thereafter we settled on the house. The day after settlement, I was starting to have the utilities turned on in the house, so that I could move into my new home. As I started to have these utilities turn on, more and more problems were found throughout the home. Starting with frozen and busted water pipes (they were not visible to the naked eye), a frozen and busted water meter, a hot water heater and expansion tank that were both frozen solid. So in other words basically all the plumbing in the house was ruined and needed replaced. Leading up to the fact that the heat in this house is hot water baseboard, and so the furnace or boiler as well as the heating elements throughout the house are also ruined and in need of repair. The house had not been properly winterized, yet they had done things to make it appear it had been even to the point of having the anti-freezing stuff in the toilets and such. So I call the agent to get the information on this home warranty that was promised to me (again being told it would cover all problems with the house) but once calling them and actually speaking to the warranty people I have found out that it only covers problems that happen after I own the home, nothing that was per-existing. So I call the agent to try to figure out what to do, since I have limited income and am a single parent (all of which the agent knew) he said "oh well you bought the house so these things are now your problem, he laughed and said I could always resell the house and then it would be someone else's problem. He even offered the relist the house for me. I have contacted his boss, and his boss's boss, and I am basically being told that since I "chose" not to have the inspection I have no ground to stand on. A month after settling on the house I received a notice that this homeowners insurance policy that his friend had quoted me was being canceled due to the pealing paint on the fence, the condition of the back porch roof etc. So I called the insurance guy to get more info and find out what to do, he once again gave me a new policy, but this one was twice as expensive. The other day I received a notice of cancellation on this 2nd policy as well. Please help as I have no idea what to do or where to go from here, but I feel as if I was tricked and led to believe thing that were not true to get me to buy a house that has so many problems. Thanks
