- December 29, 2023
- Posted by: legaleseblogger
- Category: Related News
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### Property Purchase and Disclosure
Around 4.5 years ago, I purchased a house situated on a floodplain. Despite the property being remodeled, it has a history of flooding within the last 60-70 years. The previous owners assured me in the disclosure statement that the property had not flooded during their ownership.
### Recent Flood Incident
I recently discovered that the house indeed experienced a flood in 2018, one year prior to my purchase. The basement was flooded, potentially causing damage to the water heater and furnace. The previous owners documented the incident on social media, posting images of the flooded basement and the river cresting.
### Property Condition and Mold Concerns
Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the walls are insulated with a type of styrofoam that appears to be the same as that depicted in the flood photos. This has raised concerns about the presence of mold, potentially necessitating the removal of the insulation.
### Legal Recourse and Property Value
Considering the time elapsed since the purchase, I am uncertain about my options in addressing this issue. I am also aware that the property’s value is likely affected due to its history of flooding.
AI Legalese Decoder can help navigate the complexities of property disclosure laws, potential recourse against the previous owners for misrepresentation, and the impact of property damage on its value. It can provide information on relevant statutes of limitations and legal avenues to address the situation, ultimately enabling me to make informed decisions about the next steps for the property.
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****** just grabbed a
Consult a real estate attorney
Totally – screen shot the images and their social media accounts, back the screen shots up, and speak with a lawyer. You’re likely still in a time window where you can do something about this.
If you haven’t already saved all those pictures, including some screenshots showing the URL of their Facebook page with it posted etc., then I would delete this post and do that immediately before they may take them down.
Absolutely. They misrepresented the house during the sale which is a defect to the formation of the contract. Definitely reach out to an attorney
for my own curiosity… what “could” even be done is a case like this? breach of contract? sue for damages? negligence?
Failure to disclose. This happened to me, but I found out right before closing and I threatened to report the sellerÔÇÖs realtors for unethical business practices as well. (I represented myself in the purchase, no buyerÔÇÖs representative). Had it all documented (including all emails and text messages) and luckily we got out of the deal.
I would consult a local attorney asap. In most states, thereÔÇÖs a statute of limitations buyers have where they can go after a seller for undisclosed known issues.
My girlfriend and her ex husband bought their house in 2015. The seller added an addition (2nd living area) with an unfinished basement underneath (shop space at best). Because the house sits on a hill, when it rains, water runs up under the house and pools up against the back wall of the basement and seeps into the basement flooding the basement. The seller, prior to putting the house on the market, polished up the basement with new paint and cabinets on the back wall to ÔÇ£maskÔÇØ the issue. They closed all that jazz and a couple years later realized the issue. But because they werenÔÇÖt really educated, they didnÔÇÖt seek legal help. Apparently there is a 3 year SOL on dishonest disclosures, so they couldÔÇÖve done something. But because they waited so long, they couldnÔÇÖt. I would 100% seek local legal guidance on this to really understand your options, because there MAY still be time, but potentially not enough time to get the ball rolling.
Save the proof in a picture and video format with timestamp. Consult an attorney of what your options are.
Assuming the profile is public, go to WayBack Machine. ItÔÇÖs a website that lets u archive sites in their current state. ItÔÇÖll be hard to dispute between your screenshots and an archival organizationÔÇÖs records
Pretty sure I live down the street from some folks who did this exact same thing. We live on the bank of on a small fork of a river. Their garage flooded, I want to say 2018 as well. They had an article in the newspaper to garner sympathy at the time. Then when they went to sell, they allowed the realtor to post that it’s never been flooded! Literally those words in the description! I reported the listing when I saw it. If this sounds like your house, I totally don’t mind being a witness. Lol. Though I’m pretty sure all these homes on our street are only 20-30 years old. We are on the TN/KY border.
God I wish I knew about this prior to spending 50k to fix water damages a week after moving into a house that ÔÇ£neverÔÇØ flooded in 22 years (despite finding evidence of old water damage when contractors ripped everything out).
Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) §324.360 requires sellers of single-family residential properties to make certain disclosures to potential buyers, including prior flood damage.
Failure to disclose prior flood damage would be actionable under the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act (KRS Chapter 367). The Act prohibits deceptive and unfair trade practices in consumer transactions. This includes false advertising, fraudulent or misleading conduct, and other types of unfair methods of competition.
The statute of limitations for bringing a claim under the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act is one year from the date on which the violation was discovered or should have been discovered (KRS §367.220).
If this goes to court, the seller can argue that the failure to disclose should have been discovered at the time of sale, because a reasonably buyer would have investigated the seller’s social media.
That’s not a very strong argument in my opinion. You can argue that the failure to disclose was only discovered when you noticed the styrofoam insulation (or whatever prompted you to review the seller’s Facebook profile).
Get the house fixed. Tear it out, clean it up, and replace it properly. Pursue the sellers for costs since they mislead you on disclosures. You have not received the benefit of your bargain, because they lied about something that would have changed your decision to either not purchase the home, or to pay another price.
5 yeas later does not matter because you just discovered the issue.
Your attorney will probably want to start with letters to the sellers and their agent. Who knows what who gave whom the advice to lie on the disclosures.
IÔÇÖm really sorry youÔÇÖre going through this. I know it sucks from personal experience. ItÔÇÖs really going to depend on your state laws and how much actual proof you have. Knowingly purchasing in a flood plain is likely to work against you, but the pictures you found could be enough. Your best bet is to set up some appointments with appropriate real estate attorneys in your area. Usually, the initial consult is free. Another option is to look up small claims court and see if your costs fit in with the maximum claim amount is in your state. Attorneys generally arenÔÇÖt used in small claims court so itÔÇÖs less costly and sometimes the burden of proof is less. IÔÇÖll provide my personal experience in a neighboring state to give you and idea of what we went through, but maybe youÔÇÖre lucky and KY is more buyer protective.
Our experience:
We moved to TN about 10 years ago and our new house flooded due to water intrusion the day after we closed. We had just moved 14+ hours with very young kids and basically just spent all our money on the down payment. To say we were angry and stressed would be an understatement. This was our 6th house to buy together so we werenÔÇÖt noobs, but it was much older than any of the others. We had a home inspector complete what was supposed to be a very extensive inspection. WeÔÇÖd been very fortunate before this to have very good home inspectors in all our previous purchases, but you canÔÇÖt really appreciate a good home inspector until youÔÇÖve suffered from a bad one. Our first step was to hire a different home inspector to understand the underlying issue and his report showed obvious signs that it was an ongoing issue the seller wouldÔÇÖve known about. We took pictures of everything and then scheduled consultations with a few different real estate attorneys.
Every attorney we talked to were very clear about laying out our odds. Our state favors sellers over buyers and almost never sides with the buyers, regardless of the evidence. Our state also does not award legal fees or punitive damages in these types of cases, so we could only go after exactly what it cost us to fix the problem. Every attorney told me about a recent verdict where a very expensive home flooded and the new owners called out a company to work on it. The company pulled up the address and saw they had been called out by the sellers to quote fixing the exact same issue a month or two before the house was put up for sale, which was not disclosed. The company had detailed documentation of the previous flooding, including dated pictures, and they testified for the buyers in court. The real estate community watched the case closely because the buyers had a nearly airtight case and they thought if a buyer was ever going to get a verdict, this was the best shot. The court sided with the seller. After that verdict, every attorney told me they would take the case if we wanted to pursue it, but that they had to advise against it for our best interest.
Estimates on legal fees for us to take the case to court ranged from $25k – $40k. We ended up spending around $35k to fully fix the water intrusion – regrading the yard, adding appropriate drainage, adding a sump pump, waterproofing the exterior, tearing down and replacing the damaged drywall, tearing out and replacing the carpet, etc. Best case scenario, which was a very long shot, we would still be $25k upside down due to legal fees, plus we would have the stress of a likely long case and the stress of actually collecting the $35k from the seller. Most likely scenario was that we would waste at least $25k in legal fees, putting us upside down $60k instead of $35k, and a year of stress. I had to let go of my righteous indignation and take it as a very expensive, very unfortunate lesson learned to avoid throwing good money after bad.
Another thing we were warned about is actually collecting if you do win. Winning the case is only step one. ItÔÇÖs one thing for the court to side with you, itÔÇÖs a totally different thing to actually have the money in hand. Real estate lawsuits are typically trickier than most other lawsuits since you are directly suing an individual and there is no insurance involved (for the most part). Car accidents, medical malpractice, employee mistreatment, etc. have big companies that are on the hook for the awarded money, and those companies are much easier to collect from because they have the money. Individuals rarely have the money on hand to pay up, even if they wanted to. And there are a lot of ways to avoid paying up if youÔÇÖre a real asshole and itÔÇÖs expensive to force the issue. You can go to court to garnish wages, which costs more in legal fees, but thereÔÇÖs a lot of income types that canÔÇÖt be garnished. It can take years to get the full award, if you ever do.
Same thing happened to my sister-in-law. It went to arbitration and they settled for $75k. She felt like they could have gotten more but it had become so contentious that she wanted to walk away with just $75k. I think she was able to find receipts from the clean up after the flood. Statute of limitations shouldnÔÇÖt start to run until you discover or should have discovered the fraud.
You will need to speak to an actual attorney, not Reddit.
You can always do something. You can always sue.
This is the kind of thing a decent home inspector finds.
As Saul Goodman would say, some might call that fraud in service of concealing a felony. Saul however, is a bit more open minded. But it is tricky. Sounds like they knowingly did what they could to conceal the flooding and not tell the buyers about what happened.
Why do you have to tear out the insulation? Because there ÔÇ£mightÔÇØ be mold under it? CanÔÇÖt you just test the indoor air for mold first to see if thereÔÇÖs a real problem?
I understand being annoyed, but what actual problem are you trying to solve?
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Damn, you got lucky! My basement flooded less than a week after I bought the house. Reached out to sellers who said “Oh, that’s weird, it never flooded when we lived there.” No way to prove they were lying (but it’s very clear due to water stains, etc.) and it kept flooding with every rain until we got it fixed.
NAL. Contract law might be enforceable depending on your laws. Talk to a lawyer.
Does water in a below ground basement constitute ÔÇ£home floodingÔÇØ.?