Home Seller Hides Fire Damage
REM #A704
By Ilyce R. Glink
Summary: A homeowner discovers evidence of a fire a year after moving into his new home. Ilyce explains how a home inspection would have uncovered this damage and the seller was required to disclose the fire.
Q: I bought a house without doing a home inspection. Almost a year after the
house was purchased I found out that two-thirds of the roof has sustained massive
fire damage. No one told me about this.
Is there anything I could do in order to get some type of reimbursement from the seller for the repair of the roof? I appreciate any assistance you could provide me.
A: I don't know why anyone would purchase a house without paying for a professional
home inspection. A good inspector would have climbed up into your attic, poked
around and discovered evidence of the fire. You could have settled with the
seller ahead of the closing, and saved yourself the headache. (And who knows
what else the inspector might have found?)
Still, I wonder why this wasn't disclosed on the seller disclosure form. Is
the fire damage to the roof structural and was never repaired? Nearly ever state
requires sellers to disclose material defects that aren't visible to the naked
eye. I think "massive fire damage" would count.
You should consult with a real estate attorney who has experience in seller
disclosure litigation to see if you have a claim worth pursuing.
NOTE: This column is distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022. This column may not be resold, reprinted, resyndicated or redistributed without written permission from the publisher.
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