Foundation Warranty

J

John Siah

New Member
Jurisdiction
Texas
Hello,

My wife and I bought a single family home in October 2022. There were foundation repairs done to the house back in 2012 and the seller stated in the seller disclosure that the repair comes with a lifetime warranty and I was told that all I needed is to transfer the warranty after we owned the home. After the sale is completed, I called the foundation company to find out that the warranty was already voided because the seller did not transfer the warranty from the owner before him within 90 days after he bought house, and now I am required to pay $3000 to reinstate the warranty.

We already tried to contact the seller through his selling agent but received no response.

I am looking for an attorney to have them send a demand letter to the seller, but I am not sure if it is worth it after attorney fees and etc, or if there are other ways besides a demand letter.

Thanks,
John
 
Sorry, even a "demand letter" from an attorney won't get you what you want. The seller could just ignore that, too.

If you aren't willing and able to pay for a lawsuit, forget about getting any money from the seller.

Even if you are willing to pay for a lawsuit it will cost you more in attorney fees than the $3000 to reinstate the warranty.

Besides, I don't think you have a case. You were told there was a transferable warranty. You had the opportunity to verify it during the inspection contingency period of the escrow. You didn't. In fact, it was so easy to do that all you did was make a phone call to find out, too late, that it was no good.

See if you can get a free consultation with an attorney and review your options.

You may just have to take your chances with the foundation repair and hope it holds up.
 
If you are not having foundation issues, ten years on after repairs, I don't see a real problem here. Are there issues not disclosed?

Maybe get some expert advice as to the state of your foundation. From experience, $3k is not a lot to pay for a foundation solution, if needed. Do not pay the $3k however without an attorney reviewing the contract for the "lifetime warranty".

Good Luck!
 
I'm of the opinion that this was a material misrepresentation for which the OP could sue (in small claims court) for the $3,000 (and likely prevail).
 
I'm going to note that it's now 11 years after the repairs and you didn't mention any actual problems with the foundation.

John Siah said:
I am looking for an attorney to have them send a demand letter to the seller, but I am not sure if it is worth it after attorney fees and etc, or if there are other ways besides a demand letter.
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Whether it's "worth it" is something only you can decide. If I were the seller, I'd ignore the demand because this is something you could and should have investigated before you bought the home.

SELLER'S DISCLOSURE: Foundation repairs were performed in 2012, which was prior to Seller's ownership of the home.

SELLER: There's a lifetime warranty on the foundation repairs and you'll need to transfer the warranty after the home.

ME/BUYER: That's great. Please provide copies of all documents relating to the warranty so that I can verify its existence and terms and contact the warranty company about the transfer process.​

Zigner said:
I'm of the opinion that this was a material misrepresentation for which the OP could sue (in small claims court) for the $3,000 (and likely prevail).
Click to expand...

The warranty existed, so the only possible misrepresentation would be that it was still in effect. The seller may have believed it was still in effect. Regardless, the OP would have serious problems with the reasonable reliance element of a misrepresentation claim. The seller disclosed the warranty, so the OP was on inquiry notice and had the opportunity to confirm the warranty's existence and terms (including transferability). That said, there's little downside to a small claims action.
 
Upon investigating further, things get more tricky, so I would like to clarify a few points:

There were 2 foundation repairs of this home (2001, 2012). The 2001 has a warranty which grandfathered and tied with house, which means the regardless who the owner is, the warranty is still valid. The 2012 fix, however is tied to the owner and requires a transfer. The seller did not transferred the warranty for the work done in 2012 90 days after the day he purchased the home, therefore the warranty is voided. Fast forward to when I was in process of purchasing the property, the SD stated "foundation repair - lifetime warranty" which is false. Prior to closing, I have asked multiple times for the seller to send me the warranty information. So what he did (this I found out recently) was he called the foundation company for the warranty information, the foundation company sent him a 4 page documents that shows a map of the work done, a warranty certificate for the work done in 2001 and the transfer warranty document that shows he needs to transfer the warranty from the owner before him to the seller. However, the warranty was already voided at that time because you are required to transfer what warranty 90 days after owning the house, so I am not sure why the foundation company did not tell him that the warranty has already been voided at the time. So out of the 4 pages, the seller then only sent me the warranty certificate page. I then called the foundation company trying to see if I can transfer the warranty, but the foundation company only told me to start the process when I officially own the house. I called the foundation company again the week after closing, trying to start the process, again they did not mentioned anything about a voided warranty, they just said they will send me the transfer papers and scheduled an inspection. They did not send me any transfer papers, and I only found out about the voided warranty when the structural technician came for the inspection, which is a couple of months later.

What I have done so far:
1. I reached out to seller's agent to see if I am able to contact them, because I think even if we are all under the impression that the warranty is still valid, the seller did misinterpret the warranty information in the seller's disclosure. To the previous comments who said I did not do my due diligence, I would say I perhaps could have been more careful, but I have reached out multiple times to the seller and also tried calling the foundation company prior to closing. However, the foundation company is very reluctant in dealing with me because I am not the owner yet.

2. I also emailed the foundation company asking for some sort of discount, because even though they are not at fault that the warranty was not transferred, they could have mentioned about this way sooner when the seller and I called.

For people who are asking about the condition of the foundation issue. The areas where work was done in 2012 is starting to sink again. I am aware of this because prior to closing I hired another company to evaluate the foundation of the house, which is why when I asked the seller for the warranty information, I also asked them to call the foundation company to attempt to transfer to the warranty to me, but it is not possible because I am not yet the owner of the property.
 
Based on your added information, I am going to backtrack from my previous response. I agree that you failed to do your due diligence in this matter. Furthermore, the seller represented that the repairs had a lifetime warranty, and that was correct insofar as the 2001 repairs were concerned, so his statement was not false on the disclosure statement.
 
John Siah said:
The areas where work was done in 2012 is starting to sink again. I am aware of this because prior to closing I hired another company to evaluate the foundation of the house
Click to expand...

If you discovered the sinking foundation during the inspection contingency period the appropriate course of action was either to insist it be repaired, renegotiate the price, or walk away from the purchase.

Chasing an elusive warranty was a mistake when you had more concrete (sorry about the pun) options.

I have to go with Zigner on this. I think you are stuck. But small claims court is cheap and informal and being served a summons and complaint could bring the seller to the negotiating table. Or not.
 
Thanks for you guys' swift response.

I have no questions about the 2001 repairs, but he is not correct about the 2012 warranty.

And a sinking foundation is not the issue here as well. Even if the foundation is fine, I will still need to pay $3000 to reinstate the warranty.

However, I do understand at this point my chances are stretching out thin, and there is probably a bigger chance to get a discount from the foundation company for the reinstatement fee.
 

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