Questions about Disclosure statment

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KaylaMarie1

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Hi,
My husband and I bought a house in April of 2008. When we bought the house we got a 1 page "disclosure statment" stating that the roof was new and other new things. It didnt say anything about the remodeling that they had done to the living room floor, dining room ceiling, and all of the upstairs. I thought in the disclosure statment they were suppose to tell you all of that stuff?? Another thing was that our house has a fireplace (which was a major selling point for me) and central air (both in working condition as stated in the disclosure statment). We bought the house when it was still cold (in April) and when it started to get hot we tried using the central air (didnt work) later that winter we were thinking about using the fireplace, we had someone come and look at it and they said that in order for the fireplace to be usable it would require a sleeve up the chimney (in other words, the fireplace didnt work either). We just shrugged it off because we thought, we had already bought the house, there was nothing we could do about it. A couple weeks ago we decided to amend our 2008 taxes to get the homeowners tax credit and while we were getting our taxes done we got to talking to our tax person about the fireplace and central air not working and that the "disclosure statment" said that they did. She told us that we should contact the lawyer that did our closing and talk to him about recourse for them lying on the statment. Does anyone know if we have a case or not?? Any and all answers would be appreciated
 
Does anyone know anything about this kind of stuff??? I think we are going to talk to the lawyer that did our closing on Monday when he gets back from vacation....but i dont really want to waste anyones time if we dont have a case.
 
Could someone please give me some advice.....im not really sure what to do?? Any answers would be appreciated
 
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All of the disclosure statements I've seen tend to be one or two page documents that never address remodeling issues.

The air conditioning may have worked when the original owners had it. And it sounds as if the fireplace is not blocked off, correct? Thus the original owners may have used it and it actually worked...even though they had no idea that it might not be safe to do so.

Now, if the fireplace was actually blocked off that might be a different matter...

I hope this makes sense.

Gail
 
I highly dout that the air conditioning system actually worked when they still had it. The chances of it going out right before them selling the house are highly unlikely. As for the fireplace no it is not blocked off. The person I bought the house from was my old high school art teacher and we were talking about the fireplace at a bar one night and he told me that he had never actually tried to use it. How could he say in the disclosure statement if it worked when he had never attempted to use it. Also the disclosure statement was signed but not dated (AT ALL) does that make it void. There were also some other discrepancies such as what they all chose to leave. The disclosure statement had 2 columns (one asked if it was in the house, as in stays in the house, eg water conditioner, and the other column asked if it was in working order. there were things asked on the disclosure statement like (the water softener stayed but they didnt check that it stayed or if it was in working condition, same with the sump pump in the basement). It also states at the bottom of the paper " the seller has owned the property since____(date) and makes representation only since that date" the date was never filled out.

Also, if the seller states that something works, isnt the realtor suppose to check it out and MAKE SURE that it works before they say that it does???

And if someone is at fault, who is it, the realtor or the seller???
 
I mean i think it is total BS (pardon my abbreviation) that they can say something works and then come to find out it doesnt. The first time we tried to use the A/c it didnt work. They had to have known that it didnt work. And the fireplace....how can they say that something works when they have never used it?? We already have a plumbing and heating person coming to look at the chimney and fireplace tomorrow to tell us exactly what it would cost to get it in working order again...we had a masonary person come and look at it today and he said the way it sits right now would be VERY unsafe to use....(we have not tried to use it AT ALL) which means it was like that when they sold us the house. And i recall asking the realtor if the fireplace worked when we were looking at the house, she said she would have to get back to us because she wasnt sure.....and then she never did) but it said it worked in the disclosure statement, which should have been true) I mean, HOW can people falsify a legal document like that?
 
She told us that we should contact the lawyer that did our closing and talk to him about recourse for them lying on the statment. Does anyone know if we have a case or not??
If the statement said you had a working chimney and central A/C, and you didn't, and it can be shown that they weren't in working condition when the house was sold, you might have something. Whether you'll succeed is anyone's guess. It's certainly worth talking to the lawyer about.

FWIW, I have never seen a disclosure statement that required the seller to list the remodelling they had done.
Also, if the seller states that something works, isnt the realtor suppose to check it out and MAKE SURE that it works before they say that it does???
No. The realtor is not usually required to second-guess the seller.
 
"If the seller says something works, isn't it up to the realtor to check it out and MAKE sure it works before they say it does??"

No. It is up to the BUYER to have such systems checked out prior to agreeing to the final purchase.

You did have a home inspection done prior to closing on the deal, didn't you? In not, you have no knowledge if the air conditioning system worked at the time of the closing or not.

Home inspections are extremely valuable and well worth their cost.

Gail
 
Yes we had a home inspection. They never said anything about the fireplace not working or the a/c not working. Were not really worried about the A/C, its the fireplace that im concerned about. Were in the process right now of having a plumbing and heating person come and inspect the chimney and fireplace to give us an estimate of how much it is going to cost to get it back in working order.
 
Then your issue should be with the company/person who did the home inspection.

I've never had a home inspection done where that person did not test both the heating and air conditioning systems and at least check up the flue of the chimney.

If the power is off, many home inspectors bring their own generators to test such things as the air conditioning.

Gail
 
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