Posted by Derek on 7/26/06

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Aloha Experts,

Several months ago my wife and I purchased our first home
in Illinois. This in fact was to be our dream home purchase
because we have saved up for years anticipating this day
which would also be in conjuction with my retirement from
the military. A very special occasion for my family.

The events that I will described happened while we were
stationed in Hawaii and we solely relied on our Realtor,
Home Inspector, Attorney and my Inlaws to make the
transaction on our behalf while overseas.

In December we called our realtor, viewed the home, got an
attorney and made an offer to which the seller accepted.
(we were told this home was just put back on the market
because the previous buyer backed out) I used my VA
benefits to help us along the way but we were told that
approval of loan would be based on appraised rate to which
was not a problem. Our contingent was to close in May due
to my military duties but the seller declined and said we
had to do it no later than Feb so we went ahead with the
deal.
We got a Home Inspector which noted quite a bit of
maintenance issues that I could handle on my own but
several were major like the electrical, plumbing and mold.
we asked the seller to repair the problems and he declined
once again so we were going to back out of the deal when
our attorney called to tell us that they agreed to have the
mold looked at because this was my biggest complaint. The
Home Inspector noted on the report that the basement had
allot of patchy areas that appeared to be mold but because
he wasn't certified in mold remediation that we would have
to seek out that particular contractor for test.
Well, the seller agreed to pay for the test and repairs if
needed. mind you, most of the mold was located in the
basement but the contractor the seller got for the
remediation said the issue was in the half bath on the main
floor??? wait, the home inspector did not note any problems
there??? what gives? so he said he got the place fixed...
also got an electrician to come and and certify that there
were no electrical issues. so we closed on the deal at the
end of Feb 06.

The problems:
I couldn't get my family out to the house via military
transfer due to paperwork issues until the first week of
May so the home would be vacant until then. So my inlaws
aggreed to check on the home every other day till my family
arrived but In April this is all hell broke loose! My
inlaws called to tell us that our basement was flooding and
the water was coming from a crack in the basement wall and
pouring out (exact words) like you were holding a gallon of
milk upside down watching it pour out. We had them call a
leak repairman which responded within a couple of hours.
after he had sealed the leak, he walked around and noted
that someone had did a terrible job with the first
repair!!! WHAT REPAIR? He said someone had tried to repair
this leak before and didn't do it properly and as he
thoroughly inspected for more leaks he noted that this had
been an ongoing thing for quite awhile to the point that
mold was everywhere and what looked like someone had
repainted the basement walls to hide what appeared to be
water damages. and 2 new furnaces were installed and drain
tiles into 2 separate sump pumps.

We concluded with repairman and immediately called our
attorney and explained the issue to him. He said he would
contact the sellers attorney to find out what was going on.
he called us back after an hour to tell us the the seller
had offered to pay us $400 to get the leak repaired. I
asked if this was an admission to a problem that was not
disclosed at the signing of the contract. as a matter of
fact nothing was checked or initialed on the disclosure, no
problems what so ever. This is what we paid the home
inspector to find and he didn't even notice that the
basement was ever flooded and why there were drain tiles
installed in the past.

Now we understand why our basement is a petri dish for
several hundred types of mold.

I had to lock the basement from my 3 year old daughter and
2 year old son that has the possibility of being exposed to
some harmful mold spores. The Basement that we bought with
the home is totally useless and with my military income, no
way can I afford to have it repaired. I am only an E6....no
way possible! This Doctor, The Seller took advantage of me
and my family. I swore to protect and defend my country,
our country, and this is the thanks I get in return.
My attorney has casted doubts on us saying it impossible to
go after him or the home inpection company or any others in
cahoots with this scam. I talked with the neighbors and
they all agreed that the Good Doctor knew of these problems
because he bought the problem from the first original
owner. We went to the village tax assessors office only to
find out the a couple of the employees they were friends
with the original owner and told us that they had problems
when the home was first built and that we'd be better off
filling the basement with concrete......that was so nice of
her to tell us this don't you think!

This is our dilema.....can any of the Experts here send me
on a good course of action? I don't know what to do. I
really got duped and now if I try to sell I have to
disclose everything and this Doctor walks free and clear
and when we agreed to buy the home, he made a nice profit
on us.
I also believe the sellers realtor had prior knowledge of
this as well but I can't prove it. I would just like to see
the corrupt brought to justice and make all wrong, right
again.

Very Respectfully, Derek DeCosta PO1, USN

Re: Non-Disclosure, 6/17/09, by Derek.

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