How long after you buy a house can you go back on the owner and make him pay for things that are wrong with the house? He signed papers saying nothing was wrong with the house can't I do something about it?





How long after you buy a house can you go back on the owner and make him pay for things that are wrong with the house? He signed papers saying nothing was wrong with the house can't I do something about it?
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
didn't you get an inspection? How can you prove they knew about it?
Last edited by Emily; 12-09-2006 at 01:33 AM.





i think this is a question for your real estate agent.
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Look at the contract - it ought to say something about that. Or take the papers and your question to a lawyer. I'm thinking it'd be under a statute of limitations for contracts.
How long has it been? Can you prove they must've known about it?





We signed the last week in sept. He signed papers saying nothing was wrong with the house. I don't think I can prove he knew, but he did I know he did. It's the sewer when they did the inspection it worked fine. Now it's backed up in the basement. It happened a week after we moved in when we called the plumer he knew right where to go to fix it. The outside clean out is hidden under a landscaping rock we did not even know where it was but he sure did.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Well, the good news: You're probably not past a statute of limitations on making a claim, assuming your state allows such a claim.
Bad news: How much did this cost? $200? $500? A lawyer's going to cost you far more to punch this one through, with no guarantee of success, plus the loss of your quality of life to push this.
I'd talk to the plumber first, with these questions:
How long was the problem there?
Can he say for certain that the previous homeowner would've known about it?
If the plumber can't say, you're probably screwed. If the plumber can say, well, good. You have a witness. Now, is it worth it to keep moving forward on it?
Is the house brand new? then you have 5 years to persue the builder for any defects (at least). If you purchased the house "as is" then I'd have to agree with Jay.
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There is a tree 30 feet from the house, the plumber said it's roots have collapsed the pipes. The roots did not grow in the pipes in 2 months. The tree is at least 50 foot tall. The plumber said it would be between $3000 and $5000 to dig up the pipe and replace it. The house is not new it's old, we were never told when it was built.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."





in Australia you just have to suck it up.
the responsibility is on the buyer to make necessary inspections and do research. once title has passed... tough titties. (never was caveat emptor more true)
hopefully in the states you can make waves for the seller, thank your stars you're not here.
it doesn't matter if the problem was there before or not, what you need to show is that the previous owner knew about them. But it sounds like you can't and it's your problem. Besides, I don't remember anywhere on the disclosure saying what might happen. Having roots on a tree close to pipes is common.
Also, they would have to disclose when the house was built. Its most likely on your inspection report or even your land survey.
Sorry, doesn't sound like you have anything to go on. Even if the previous owner did know about it and didn't disclose it...you have to prove that...being that you had a thorough home inspection done (right?) if the home inspector did not catch this, then chances are the problem wasn't big enough at that time to catch it. Just because the plumber knew exactly where to go is irrelevant. Sometimes when the plumber is familiar with the area, they just "know" where things are...it doesn't mean that there was a recurring problem before.
You may want to call your Home Inspector and tell him that even though he inspected the home and gave it a passing grade, he never caught the broken pipes...and now you have this huge bill you need to deal with...and see what they say.
Or even better, take this information to your lawyer (you did have one, right?) and run the scenarios past your RE lawyer and see what he/she says and go from there.





Venus is right. Most likely you'll never see damages collected from the previous home owner. In addition, just because this tree was doing this doesn't mean that the previous home owner knew anything about it either. Plumbers see this sort of issue all the time (for example in Vegas back in the 70s, they used to plant Cottonwood trees in everyone's front yard. Because they never deep watered the trees, the roots grew out and destroyed house foundations, sprinkler systems, water mains, sidewalks, you name it) but that doesn't mean the home owner knew anything. As a home owner, I'm not a botanist so I don't know what that huge mulberry is going to do to my house in ten years or ten days. But a plubmer who's fixed dozens of homes in my area for root damage might. See the difference?
Regardless of all this though, just file a claim with your home owners insurance, pay the deductible, and be done with it.
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Dont know if you have a claim against the previous owner or not but get the problem fixed now because the auger through the roots is just a temp fix . Make darn sure the plumber runs a camera through the pipes and watch the video as he is doing it because it will be obvious . The camera may cost you $200 or so but see if you can get it waved after they give you an estimate for the reapir otherwise you can have another co fix it . But dont ask them beforehand because they will just add it into the cost of your job .Sorry about your mess isnt home ownership great ! J/k![]()





No J it's not lol. I think I'm just going to lick my wounds and mark it up as yet another learning experience. DW my home owners insurance would cover something like this? If they did I'm sure they would want to go after the previous owner.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
If it comes down to you having to pay for it then I would seriously look into DIY.
I had a similar overflow/backup issue and also found out that there wasn't even a clear-out installed in the pipe to septic here. I was looking at over $2500 in repair.
A friend showed me how to work on PVC and it was suprisingly simple. With his help we dug up and replaced the pipe and also installed a clear-out. I think it cost me about $30 in PVC. The work took about 3 hours. The hardest part was the digging. Replacing PVC is so easy you won't believe it.
I was lucky that the pipe was accessible, hopefully yours isn't too hard to get at. Good luck.
-E
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