My wife and I purchased a house about 15 months ago in our area but before we purchased the house we were concerned about the foundation because of some wavey looking tiles in one room. So before we made an offer on the house we paid a structural engineer to inspect the foundation, structure and roof. The report came back that all of these areas were in good condition, so we purchased the house. The engineer also told us the the wavey tiles were due to a poor tile job.
Within 5 months of moving in we noticed a huge crack in one of our rooms. It had not been disclosed in the disclosure even though it was there before we made the purchase. The crack is in the only room in the house with linoleum flooring (changed from tile to cover it up) and we noticed it after normal the wear and tear from walking over it when the floor finally tore. We called our insurance company (Allstate, who we hate now) out to look at it and without even taking a good look, they rejected our claim because it wasn't "sudden damage."
Thinking this was more of a cosmetic problem we decided to start saving money to have it fixed. Within 8 months after the insurance rejected us, we noticed large cracks in our drywall, broken tiles, doors and windows that will not close anymore and countertops moving away from the wall very rapidly. I mean most of this stuff is happening within the past 6 weeks!
We are so disgusted because we really felt like we covered all our bases and now this is happening to us. I guess my question is, who is responsible? The previous owner for not disclosing problems they may have known about, the engineering company for signing off on the house as having no problems, or the insurance company for taking our money but basically ignoring us. Do we need to hire a lawyer?
Thanks for your time! Any advice is good.
Within 5 months of moving in we noticed a huge crack in one of our rooms. It had not been disclosed in the disclosure even though it was there before we made the purchase. The crack is in the only room in the house with linoleum flooring (changed from tile to cover it up) and we noticed it after normal the wear and tear from walking over it when the floor finally tore. We called our insurance company (Allstate, who we hate now) out to look at it and without even taking a good look, they rejected our claim because it wasn't "sudden damage."
Thinking this was more of a cosmetic problem we decided to start saving money to have it fixed. Within 8 months after the insurance rejected us, we noticed large cracks in our drywall, broken tiles, doors and windows that will not close anymore and countertops moving away from the wall very rapidly. I mean most of this stuff is happening within the past 6 weeks!
We are so disgusted because we really felt like we covered all our bases and now this is happening to us. I guess my question is, who is responsible? The previous owner for not disclosing problems they may have known about, the engineering company for signing off on the house as having no problems, or the insurance company for taking our money but basically ignoring us. Do we need to hire a lawyer?
Thanks for your time! Any advice is good.
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