From: "Jamie" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Home Inspection Troubles - Advice Needed
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 12:45:22 -0400

If you can PROVE that the previous owner was aware of the problem you almost
certainly have a case.  It is illegal to fail to disclose any structural
problems and the contract surely has a clause to the effect that the seller
was not aware of any significant problems that were not disclosed.

Maybe, if you are lucky, you can find someone who actually worked on the
house and get a statement from them to the effect that they described the
problem to the owner. Just a patch might not be enough though; they could
argue that it was already there when they bought the place and weren't even
aware of it.


"Starscream_1977"  wrote in message
news:a976c6d9.0410151740.449e10af@posting.google.com...
> > what does your contract with the appraiser say?
>
> I'm not sure I know what you're asking. I don't think we had a
> contract with the appraiser. All that was setup through our real
> estate agent. I will see if I can find any paperwork, though. I
> appreciate the help. The seller of the house, when we bought it, lived
> here for 33 years and did not disclose this problem, although we have
> 3 licensed contractors who came and said that the problem has been
> around for a number of years and that the owner had to have known
> about it, because it was "patched" once before.