Post: Home Disclosure

Posted by Tina on 7/24/08

When we purchased our house in 2005, we received a credit
of $10,000 back based on the sellers disclosure and the
home inspection report. Turns out the basement wall is
bowing, leaks and has had numerous concrete patches which
have been painted over, prior to our ownership. The cost to
repair - $20,000 - $40,000. The sellers lived in the house
for 30 years and stated that they did paint the basement
block walls however never made any repairs nor ever saw any
such cracks or bowing. We are in the course of suing the
home inspector for failing to identify the basement issues,
failure to have gone up into the attic (more issues there)
and suing the sellers for failing to disclose the
patches/leaks/cracks on their disclosure form. The sellers
did tell their attorney that they "verbally" told us they
had a prior basement leak. I don't remember that.

We have had an engineer, another home inspector and masonry
contractor all determined that the issues were present
before we owned the house. Since the prior owners lived in
the house for 30 years, how can we go about determining
that the patches and cracks were repaired by them and not
disclosed? Is there a way to determine the age of a
concrete/mortar patch within 15-20 years?

Posts on this thread, including this one

Home Disclosure, 7/24/08, by Tina.