Who do i send letter of demand to?

[CJ82]

British Colombia, Canada

My partner and i bought a home recently and discovered the cover up of latent defects.
we have spoken to the sellers who at first admitted guilt and told us to hire contractors to fix. When we wrote sending them invoices to pay the contractors they said that due to their declining health we should direct all further communication to their daughter. We did this and she refused that her parents had any responsibility for the repairs and declined to pay.
Our next step Is to send a demand letter before going to small claims court but my question is who do i send the demand letter to? The sellers or their daughter? Am i to assume she has power of attorney? Or ask for proof? Or do i just bypass their wishes and send them the letter directly? The other issue is i don't have the daughters address.

 

[adjusterjack]

who do i send the demand letter to? The sellers or their daughter?

The sellers. They are the ones you had the contract with. And they are the ones you sue if you have to.

Am i to assume she has power of attorney?

Doesn't matter as to responsibility (if any) for the undisclosed defects.

A POA only allows the daughter to perform certain duties for them, doesn't shift responsibility.

What defects were there?

How much money did you spend fixing them?

Did you have a home inspection?

If no, you may not have any right to compensation.

If yes, why didn't these defects turn up in the inspection?

 

[CJ82]

Yes we had a home inspection.
The defects were hidden behind beautiful new cladding. We lived for more than a year in the home with no idea.
we took the cladding off to find completely rotten out structural beams and posts.
We have had a structural engineer write a report as well as home inspector and contractors. All say multiple attempts of botched repairs were made by previous owner who was also builder. Lots of photo evidence. They even poured concrete inside some of the rotten posts. Very clear they new extent of problem on every corner of house before they sold to us declaring no defects. We are devastated.
In bc small claims court goes up to 35k… looking at more to fix … contractors are friends who will keep costs as low as possible but really no idea what final cost will be.
My plan is to wait untill one side of house is fixed which is underway then multiply the cost for the second side to give a total. The contractors will quote that.
would that be allowed in court?

The sellers. They are the ones you had the contract with. And they are the ones you sue if you have to.



Doesn't matter as to responsibility (if any) for the undisclosed defects.

A POA only allows the daughter to perform certain duties for them, doesn't shift responsibility.

What defects were there?

How much money did you spend fixing them?

Did you have a home inspection?

If no, you may not have any right to compensation.

If yes, why didn't these defects turn up in the inspection?

 

[adjusterjack]

We have had a structural engineer write a report as well as home inspector and contractors. All say multiple attempts of botched repairs were made by previous owner who was also builder.

The previous owner built the home and lived in it since new? That's helpful. They'd be hard pressed to say they didn't know about it.

You'll need the inspector and contractors to testify in court.

My plan is to wait untill one side of house is fixed which is underway then multiply the cost for the second side to give a total. The contractors will quote that.
would that be allowed in court?

Possibly. I don't know anything about Canadian courts but I can be pretty sure that the contractors will have to testify.

This is probably something that you should not do without an attorney.

 

[Zigner]

Please be aware that this forum is for US law only. Thisdoes not detract from the common-sense information that @adjusterjack shared, however, you really should seek out legal information that is specific to your country.

 

[Zigner]

This is probably something that you should not do without an attorney.

Always with the "get an attorney" advice...



(For the OP: This is a bit of an "inside joke", as I am often accused of suggesting too often that an attorney be consulted.)

 

[adjusterjack]

Always with the "get an attorney" advice...

Muriel doesn't like it.

(Another inside joke.)