Posted by Laura on 11/30/07

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My new husband and I just purchased our first home in Ohio.
We bought the home in September. We paid for a whole home
inspection prior to purchasing the home. The seller was an
elderly lady who was moving into a nursing home, but seemed
to be of good health at our closing. She signed all the
papers, talked to us, chatted about certain "features" of
her home, etc.

On her disclosure papers she stated that, "Cracks in
basement walls allowed water seepage but were repaired 10
years ago". We requested a receipt of repairs in an
addendum to the contract, which she provided at the closing
of our home. Like that day, at the table, with the title
agency there, ready to sign papers.

We have now lived in the home for over 3 months and EVERY
crack in the basement leaks. Our first line of action was
that we called the repair company, who came out and looked
at the cracks he "fixed". When I say fixed....he charged
this woman $8,000 to repair 4 large cracks. EACH of them
has leaked multiple times since we have lived here. He said
for $500 more he could install a drain in our backyard to
take pressure off of our foundation, but never addressed the
fact that the cracks were leaking.

So, then we called another foundation company and had them
give us an estimate to repair the leaks. $5,800! They COULD
NOT believe that he charged that much for the repairs, and
that the basement needed new drain tile, the cracks
re-repaired and the outside soil needed to be fixed. They
said for the amount of money he charged, they should NEVER
had leaked again.

After relaying this information to our Realtor, she advised
us to contact a lawyer and see what our option are. I found
one, faxed him all the paper work he requested. In the
process, I discovered that the date on the basement crack
repairs was 8-1-03!!!!!!!!!! That is not 10 years ago!!!
That is a little over 4 years!

If her disclosure stated 10 years, and the repairs were done
4 years....this is not accurate information that she
disclosed. Does this void her credibility? Does this cause
the contract to be "untrue"? Could this help us out???

Also, on the disclosure it asks "If owner knows of repairs,
modifications, or alterations to the property or other
attempts to control any flooding, drainage, settling,
grading or erosion problems since owning the property (but
not longer than the past 5 years), please describe"

Well, when the crack repair man came, he had to bring in
dirt to re-direct the run-off from the roof. A back hoe!
She did not disclose this information either...

Help!!!! I am waiting to hear back from the attorney, but it
is now Friday, and I don't think I will hear anything until
Monday.

Re: Date on Disclosure incorrect (PS), 12/02/07, by Prairie Dawg.

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