Possible Legal recourse

Wizard

New Member
Jurisdiction
Texas
Good afternoon,

My wife and I purchased a home two years ago as I PCS'd here from Oregon to San Antonio. I had approximately 10 days to find and purchase a home. My wife really liked this house and it had just recently been listed, Sellers disclosure said no issues with the home at all aside from some rusted piping for the water heater and the sliding door didn't latch well. Not an issue. We had an inspection done which stated there was a history of foundation repair based on the concrete patches surrounding the home. Sellers disclosure says no foundation issues past or present.

Three weeks after we moved into the home we noticed that our stone tile floor cracked between our living room and sun room. Which over the course of two months went across the entire width of the floor. Once we did some digging we found that this house was purchased from auction yet a sellers disclosure was provided. The repairs that were done by the company include carpet, drywall, and paint. The carpet was removed by us later on and we found that two slab repairs were done in the past underneath the carpet along with cracks going through the slab across the width of the front room.
This home was a flip so the seller never lived in the home and in theory knew nothing about the home they sold yet still provided a sellers disclosure. In my logic brain, it would make sense that since the repairs were done, photos would have had to be provided by the contractors doing the work for before/during/and after work was done to prove it was completed. They would had to have seen the foundation work because there are even concrete repairs on the front of the house from foundation repair work.

I understand that as a buyer, you effectively buy the house as is, if you find any issues after the fact, it is your problem for the most part. The issue that I have is that the repairs that were done to the home hid the fact there were foundation issues aside from the concrete repairs, and it would be 26k to get the house foundation fixed. Do I have a leg to stand on for getting repayment or at least the foundation fxied.

If you need further information, please let me know and I will provide it to the best of my ability.
 
Could you further elaborate on why? I am a "Why" person, so if you could provide an explanation I would greatly appreciate it.
 
I honestly can't tell if you read the post or if you just quoted part of it to increase your message count for kicks.

If the seller provides faulty information and hides the fact there were foundation issues with the home, regardless of if it's an as is purchase. That is sellers fraud. Is it not?
 
I honestly can't tell if you read the post or if you just quoted part of it to increase your message count for kicks.

If the seller provides faulty information and hides the fact there were foundation issues with the home, regardless of if it's an as is purchase. That is sellers fraud. Is it not?

You would have to prove that not only the seller knew there was an issue but that they actively hid it from you. You had an inspector check and he didn't find the problem why should the layman owner know about it?

The fact that the inspector did find a history of foundation fixes and you did no further investigation before the purchase hurts your case even further.
 
Could you further elaborate on why? I am a "Why" person, so if you could provide an explanation I would greatly appreciate it.

If your mortgage is through your VA benefits, I have heard tales, folklore if you will; about the VA and/or the lender assisting service members/veterans/retired members in situations such as yours.

It couldn't hurt to call the VA and see if they have any suggestions/solutions.

I have also heard additional folklore crediting certain lenders with bending over backwards to help veterans/retirees in predicaments similar to yours.

Again, why not contact your lender's customer service and see if they can (or will) help?
 
I PCS'd here

Huh?

We had an inspection done which stated there was a history of foundation repair based on the concrete patches surrounding the home. Sellers disclosure says no foundation issues past or present.

A seller is only obligated to disclose what he/she knows about. How long had the seller owned the home? When were the prior repairs done? When was your inspection done in relation to when you bought the property?

the seller never lived in the home and in theory knew nothing [sic] about the home they sold yet still provided a sellers disclosure.

A seller has to provide a disclosure no matter what. However, as mentioned, the seller is only obligated to disclose what he/she knows.

I understand that as a buyer, you effectively buy the house as is

Where did you come by this understanding? If there are undisclosed defects that should have been disclosed, there may be a valid claim.

If you answer my questions, I may have further thoughts, but you're going to need to have a local attorney review the contract and the deed you received.

If the seller provides faulty information and hides the fact there were foundation issues with the home, regardless of if it's an as is purchase. That is sellers fraud. Is it not?

So...did your contract say "as is" and "no warranties"?
 
The seller owned the home for about three months before my wife and I purchased it. I am active duty military and had 10 days of house hunting.

The seller bought the house from an auction, which from what I heard from the relator who worked with me, they are not obligated to provide one by state law.

The inspection was done 2 days before closing because that was when I was able to schedule it.
The repairs where done during the time the client owned the home for those three months I think June-August. This was my first home purchase and being military my wife drove 1600 miles to get here so with our four dogs, we didn't have a lot of option at the time. I also heard that foundation issues are a dime a dozen here and it shouldn't be a problem from my relator at the time.

Going back through the paperwork, buried in the 20 pages of documents it says "accepts as is" I am guessing that undermines everything?
 
Going back through the paperwork, buried in the 20 pages of documents it says "accepts as is" I am guessing that undermines everything?

Probably. A flipper isn't likely to have any significant knowledge of defects that were not fixed in the process of getting the home ready for sale.

P.S. I'm guessing that you didn't actually have to buy a house and, instead, could have found a rental home and lived there for a bit to give you more time to find a home to buy and make sure all of the proper inspections were done.
 
Some of this I find hard to believe, I am not a construction person but even I could spot a tile crack that runs that far. Although, I steer clear of any and all home flippers if I could. In a tight market that is tough. There are Real Estate/ Construction attorneys out there in your state that could help. As has been stated if it is a VA back mortgage then you could have options there as well.

Best wishes with it.
 
I honestly can't tell if you read the post or if you just quoted part of it to increase your message count for kicks.

If the seller provides faulty information and hides the fact there were foundation issues with the home, regardless of if it's an as is purchase. That is sellers fraud. Is it not?

Yet, your own inspection told you that there were repairs done to the foundation. Maybe the seller wasn't the one that did these repairs. Why didn't you address this issue once your inspector reported it?? You knew of these repairs prior to signing the paperwork correct?
 
Going back through the paperwork, buried in the 20 pages of documents it says "accepts as is" I am guessing that undermines everything?

Very likely you are stuck with this problem with no recourse against the seller unless you can prove the seller lied in the disclosures they made to you. The disclosures are suppose to list those problems of which the seller has knowledge. If the seller doesn't know about it, the seller doesn't have to disclose it for the simple reason that the buyer can't disclose something he/she doesn't know about. You'd have to prove they knew (or likely knew) of the problem and hid it from you. A flipper who never lived in the home may not know much about any problems beyond the obvious. But given the money involved it would be worth taking the contract, the disclosures, and other documents of the deal to a real estate attorney for advice. Most will give you a free initial consultation and you can see if there is anything you can do.
 
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