Hi, My brother purchased an apartment house (first time buyer), the owner took the paper (no bank/mortgage company involvement) and he found out that he had several fire code violations (all were violations at the time of sale) The cost to correct the violations was over 8K! He didn’t get an inspection (someone he knew and trusted). Is there anything legally he can do to get at least some of his money back or is it a waste of time because he didn’t get an inspection? Thanks.
Thank you all so far for your answers.One thing I forgot to mention. The seller has been a licensed real estate agent for a long time!
nope…thats why you pay $200 to have the place inspected
February 20th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
nope…thats why you pay $200 to have the place inspected
References :
February 20th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Sorry, you may want to take him to cival trial (costs bucks) include the bank,seller, or just file a small judgment claim, it most state’s you can get @ $7500.00
References :
http://www.handleonthelaw.com. or http://www.legalzoom.com – Good Luck!!!!
February 20th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Yes. Sounds like this is something the seller actually knew about before he sold the property. This being the case the buyer can sue. Sellers are supposed to disclose to the buyer things that are wrong with the property.
The buyer in this case did not get an inspection, but this does not protect the seller. The seller had an obligation to inform the buyer of the fire code violations.
In one case the seller did not inform the buyer of a previous fire in the house. The inside of the house looked ok, but the attic was burned. The buyer sued the seller and the seller had to pay.
References :
February 20th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Nope.
He would have to prove that the owner was aware of the fire violations at the time of the sale…which is going to be impossible to do. Most laypeople are not aware of fire violations.
Because your brother was too cheap to spend $350 on an inspection, he now has an $8K problem. If he had a Realtor to help him they would have told him you ALWAYS get an inspection on resale…always, always.
Because he made that CHOICE, he is SOL.
References :
February 20th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
I would say he is SOL and will be shelling out 8k of his own money to get it up to code. Just because you trust someone doesn’t mean you don’t do your homework and hire experts to make sure you are making a sound investment. Sounds like he wanted to cut corners on buying this property and now he is going to be out for more than the inspection would have cost. He will not get any money back, he waived the inspection.
References :
February 20th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Commercial real estate is treated totally different than residential for purposes of disclosures.
In CA if the apt. is 5 units or more, it’s considered commercial and there is no law requiring the seller to disclose anything, whether he’s aware of it or not. He should have spent the $1,000 (price is depending on how many units) for an inspection.
Even then, if the purchase contract didn’t state that he can back out of the deal based on the inspection results, there’s not much he can do.
I would consider this discovery to be fortunate. If there was ever a fire and the insurance company found that the apt, did not meet code, they would not pay the claim!
The seller may not have known about the violation either, so you can’t blame him.
References :