Recourse for undisclosed issues in home purchase?

[Desk Jockey]

Get a lawyer. Depending on the state there may have been a sellers disclosure statement that would have asked about pipe freezing, water damage or something. If there is and they said “no” and particularly if there is evidence of a previous repair and they said “no” you might be able to build a case.

 

[cnelk]

Ever hear of 'Caveat Emptor'?

 

[2five7]

Damn, there is a lot of special snowflakes in here, and I'm not talking about the ones freezing the pipes! Lawer up for a frozen pipe?

 

[ryjack70ss]

Have you found where it is freezing and is anything damaged? May be just less stress and hassle to fix it.

But, yes above real estate lawyer.

Agree. Cheaper and easier to fix it. When I do little projects, I use 2x6 instead of 2x4 for exterior wall water lines. We had issues too that we could tell they hid. Ie leaks in the basement with paint etc. one rain and there is water. Can we prove it? Not a chance in hell.


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[tuffcity]

I turned all the heat UP in advance.

Warm house doesn't always equate to warm pipes. In my situation the room the pipe froze in was 68F. My problem was a 2" cold air pipe too close to the hot water line.

You might have a cold air leak close to the pipe and no amount of house heat will stop the line freeze.

 

[Silveroddo]

First, did you buy the house "As Is" If there is anything in your purchase agreements, disclosures, contracts, etc that you signed saying you purchased the house "as is", you're out of luck.
Second, it sounds like the work was performed by the homeowner, if a general contractor had performed the work in MN, he'd be on the hook for 10 years and have a bond you could go after
Third, check out your states contracting laws, in certain cases in MN, I believe homeowner performed work can be held to the warrantee period a general contractor would of been required to warrantee their work, (I think 10 years in alot of cases) unless you sign off that you are buying the house as is.
You could run it by your realtor and they should be able to tell you right off the bat if you have legal recourse based on the contract and disclosures you signed

 

[WhiteOak]

In the words of Denzel Washington, "Its not what you know, its what you can prove in court".

 

[cbat]

I can tell you from first hand experience that the only one who comes out in these things are the lawyers. If you go to civil court and get a judgement it is still almost impossible to collect. My advice is to add a circulatory system in and just keep the water moving. He knew ahead of selling that it was a problem I'm sure but just wanted out of the frozen tundra.

 

[Beendare]

How is his agent responsible? They aren’t an inspector. Even an inspector probably wouldn’t have caught it. It’s up to the seller to disclose defects.

The real estate company that sold you the house has a financial responsibility to do the due diligence. If there are deficiencies such as shoddy work done that was not permitted The agent did not disclose they have a financial responsibility.

if you are a real estate agent you should already know that....

...

 

[Ben Nicholson]

The real estate company that sold you the house has a financial responsibility to do the due diligence. If there are deficiencies such as shoddy work done that was not permitted The agent did not disclose they have a financial responsibility.

if you are a real estate agent you should already know that....

...

Negative. You clearly don't know what you are talking about here. How in the world would his agent have any idea of any defects on the property. That is the SELLERS responsibility.

 

[Brooks]

Call a contractor and have him give you an estimate. Might not be as bad as you think. From the sounds of it your not a diy home fix guy so call a contractor or two and see what they say about it.

 

[RS3579]

Ask the neighbors if they knew about this issue. If they knew the previous owner knew. That’s all the proof you need.

 

[zion zig zag]

Here is the standard RE-25 sellers disclosure for Idaho. You should have a copy of this. As far as the frozen pipe, you may have too much to prove to have any recourse, but look at the shared well and shared well agreement. If that wasn't disclosed, then you have a problem.

https://eforms.com/images/2018/08/Idaho-Sellers-Proprety-Disclosure-Statement.pdf

 

[TheGrayRider]

The previous owner can simply file bankruptcy and you will get nothing from them. Seen it before. No blood from a turnip!

 

[Kountry Biscuit]

How difficult is it to seek some sort of recourse for major issues not disclosed in the purchase of a home?

I purchased in July of this year. Now that it's cold.....I have no water in the master bathroom. Which I was told was a recent (last two years) addition to the home. The previous owner HAD to be aware that water lines are freezing at some location. This isn't going to be an easy fix.

I got hosed. Is there anything I can do????

Lawsuit? Seems like a slamdunk...

 

[dieselchessy]

It’s been a day now. Pipe should be repaired already.

 

[DAOutfitters208]

My neighbor recently approached me and asked me for “water”. Seems a valve in my greenhouse fills her above ground 250 gallon tank 140 yards away. That wasn’t fully disclosed to me either.

How is that not recorded as an easement of some sort in the title documents? Are you sure she has a legal right to that water?

 

[GotDraw?]

Ok, here's real world advice from the trenches--

I have deep experience hiring and firing attorneys, managed several cases over many years with multiple attorneys and legal fees alone totaling well over $2 million. I got my F'ing "lawyer-up" PhD over a case worth multiple commas.

Did you buy a home warranty? Yes? Then put it on them.

No?

Then just get off your soap box and forget the attorney. Better to be pissed off than pissed-on.

I guarantee you that every fool that tells you to lawyer-up has never written monthly checks from his personal account to support litigation costs. Things get "real" very quickly when you start writing 5 figure checks every month. You'll quickly learn to judge that month's bill by how thick the billing envelope is. All the seller has to state in court is "I was not aware..." What are you going to do? Hire a $5k Expert Witness engineer to do a complete study AND pull the wall apart to take pics as evidence of shoddy construction?

How much will it cost to fix the problem? Sheetrock, insulation and copper pipe are cheap. If it is less than $10k, suck it up and fix it. It will be less expensive and take far less of your time. Wouldn't it be hilarious if your court case got scheduled for the middle of elk season and you lost the case after spending $10-20k? You gonna tell the judge you want to reschedule it?

An "oh-so-strongly worded" and threating demand letter from your attorney to the seller will get you zero response from the seller. You will just end up in court, you can't go to court for less than $10k with a decent attorney. Add another $5k for an expert witness. So now you're in it for at least $15k (bare minimum) and then you lose? To prove what?

If you want an expensive life lesson in Principals, then stand on your principals and burn your cash since it's yours to do with as you wish. You'll get an MBA in what it costs to file a suit when you're the one paying-- pay for discovery, pay to answer the countless motions to dismiss, etc, pay for stenographers, pay for lawyer travel/hotel, waste endless hours of your time and energy. And if you lose, then you'll pay to fix it anyway and have the pleasure of explaining to others why having Principals costs 3x what it costs to fix a small problem.

Excuse the very blunt language. I just can't stand it when folks who aren't writing checks encourage others to start doing so. Make your Principals be about making good business decisions for your family.

JL

 

[GotDraw?]

How is that not recorded as an easement of some sort in the title documents? Are you sure she has a legal right to that water?

Tell her that game has ended. Let her come to you with some proof that she is entitled to said water. Send her a formal letter.

IF you want to be a good neighbor, then tell her you're sending her a letter stating that you will provide her water at your discretion to be neighborly, but not creating any long term obligation.

JL

 

[fwafwow]

I guarantee you that every fool that tells you to lawyer-up has never written monthly checks from his personal account to support litigation costs.

How much will it cost to fix the problem? Sheetrock, insulation and copper pipe are cheap. If it is less than $10k, suck it up and fix it.

I'm not sure if you mean to cast everyone who suggested talking to a lawyer as a "fool", so I will assume you are just talking about those who are encouraging him to go to court. In that case, I agree with you that going to court is quite often a losing proposition. And I agree that sometimes in life you just have to suck it up. A doctor once made a mistake when my wife gave birth to our son. I was counseled by a friend who is a plaintiff's lawyer that it was malpractice, but to just let it go. That was great advice.

The legal profession is often the butt of jokes and called names (often deserved in both instances), and it sounds like you had a bad experience with litigation (doesn't everyone?). But a good lawyer will say something similar to you - that taking a stand on your principles often leaves you with less than when you start - and I'm not just talking legal fees. As you point out, the time it takes is often ignored, and I've had instances where I didn't even want to "go after" someone when I could have done it myself.