What is the name of your state? Oregon
I know you all have seen this before - it's amazingly familiar, but would you review the following and tell me if you have any opinions? Thanks in advance. Their selling agent is going to present this to them this weekend, and hopefully it will ge resolved, but does anyone have any opinions on how far we can take this? She signed a disclosure notice stating that there were no problems with the property.
On July 23rd, 2003, xxxx and I, yyyy, closed on a home that we purchased from zzzz. She had originally listed the home for 179,900.00. After our home inspection we agreed to the asking price with the addendum of receiving 4500.00 back at closing in order to pay for a new furnace, since the one she had in the home did not work. In addition, our inspection revealed minor repairs such as the reseating of plumbing appliances, some other plumbing work and some minor electrical repairs which we felt would be covered by the sum left over from the 4500.00 after the purchase of the furnace. We were not made aware of any of the material defects to the home even after repeated and specific questioning regarding the roof. I have elaborated on this in the following text.
We were in the home three times and spoke to the owner zzzz on all three occasions. She was physically living in the home and packing up when we saw the home with our realtor, aaaa Jr. of Remax Realty on Friday, June 20th. We again met and spoke with zzzz during our inspection of the home with MG of Discovery Inspections on Saturday, June 28th, and again a third time after the conclusion of our negotiations with the seller in mid July.
On our initial visit to the home, we had been concerned with the mansard style roof. In particular, my fiance, xxxx, had grown up in a mansard style roofed home and during his time in the home his father and mother had to deal with a partial roof cave in. I state this because I want to emphasize that my fiance and his family, with whom we were discussing the sale of the home, had extensive knowledge of the problems that can happen with a flat roof, and we were very careful to ask the owner several times during the course of the sale whether or not she had problems with the roof. It was very important to us that the roof was in good condition and it directly related to how we would negotiate the offer. On all occasions, no mention was made of any problems with leakage in response to questions to the owner.
June 20th, 2003: In our first conversation with the owner, my fiance asked her directly if she had problems with a flat roof. She simply stated that they had problems a while back, not elaborating on details, but added that the roof had been built up, so that it was not truly a flat roof, but had an angle to it and they had not had problems since. He also asked specifically if the roof was in good condition and she stated it was. He followed up with a question about window flashing and leakage and she replied that there were new windows and she had not seen any specific problems.
June 28th: Our second conversation with zzzz happened at the end of the inspection. She had left during the inspection, but had come back at the end and we had a conversation with her on some items we had noted during the inspection. During our inspection we had noted what looked like water damage in the back bedroom, and it was obvious that someone was in the middle of replastering and painting the ceiling and wall because of the open box of plaster, a ladder and some replastering tools. I asked about the water damage and replastering to zzzz and asked if she had any problems with the roof. She stated that it was older water damage and did not say more. I asked for more information and asked specifically if there were any problems with leakage in that room. She stated she was not aware of any current water problems. At that point we asked about the popcorn ceiling in one room because of concern with asbestos, and she then said that approximately 15 years ago that the ceiling had a cave in, and that they had replaced the roof and built it up, but that since then, there had been no problems, and that the ceiling was replaced after it was known that asbestos was damaging. I have learned since then that according to CJ, her selling realtor, that she had been aware of recent leakage from over the front door, and he assumed that she had it repaired. No mention of any of this was spoken to us, especially the above stated known issue with leakage over the door, and after speaking to her and being reassured there were no current problems, we assumed that indeed, there was no problem with the roof, and any damage we had seen was old, and due to the problems they had long ago. Our inspector had seen the roof, and had told us that we would need to keep the gutters clean and to keep our eye on one area that pooled, but other than that, it seemed to be okay. He recommended we ask the owner about any problems. Which we did, several times during our conversation after the inspection, and she stated having no problems at all with the roof, with the windows, or with leaking.
At this point we were satisfied with her answers which seemed to correspond with what our inspector had indicated, we had her signed disclosure statement that said she was not aware of any material defects, and we proceeded with negotiating the sale of the home, and not taking roof repairs into any of our negotiations, thinking this was a safe point. It bears mentioning that it had been a dry month, and therefore any water damage or leakage would not have been able to be seen on that day.
After we closed on the sale in July, we made plans to repaint and refloor the whole home. Part of the prep work involved scraping and sanding the walls and priming them. From the time of our closing until the week of August 8th we had no rain. We scraped the ceiling of the back bedroom where the ceiling had been plastered over and I noticed mildew on the plastered over sheetrock, which made me suspicious of back bedroom water damage. I made arrangements with a contractor to come and inspect the sheetrock and inspect for more damage Friday. I explained to him that I wanted the sheetrock removed and replaced if there was older water damage to it. Thursday night it rained. Friday morning we received a call from the subcontractor who had gone to the house to inspect/replace the sheetrock. He said that we had a problem on our hands, because there was water “that had poured in over the front door during the rainstorm” the previous night and that he had removed the ceiling sheetrock and that the insulation was so wet he could not continue until the roof was fixed. We immediately drove over and met the sub at our home while he called his boss and explained the situation. We walked through the home and noted water that had leaked in quite obviously in three different places, in the foyer below the front door where there was quite a noticeable puddle, on top of the mantelpiece in the upstairs living room where there was water and fresh moisture stains and we felt the wet insulation in the ceiling in the back bedroom. We waited for the contractor to show up and he looked at everything and basically said we would not be able to continue with anything upstairs until the roof was repaired and the wet sheetrock replaced. Since we were heading into a rainy week, we asked him to please start work and we would settle up later. We are awaiting a complete estimate from our contractor which we will fax over as soon as we get it.
We would appreciate the owner reimbursing us for the repairs to the leaky roof and for the wet sheetrock replacement arising from the leaks. [Name] is a licensed bonded and insured contractor and we would be happy to have copies of the receipts given directly to the owner for the repairs made.
I know you all have seen this before - it's amazingly familiar, but would you review the following and tell me if you have any opinions? Thanks in advance. Their selling agent is going to present this to them this weekend, and hopefully it will ge resolved, but does anyone have any opinions on how far we can take this? She signed a disclosure notice stating that there were no problems with the property.
On July 23rd, 2003, xxxx and I, yyyy, closed on a home that we purchased from zzzz. She had originally listed the home for 179,900.00. After our home inspection we agreed to the asking price with the addendum of receiving 4500.00 back at closing in order to pay for a new furnace, since the one she had in the home did not work. In addition, our inspection revealed minor repairs such as the reseating of plumbing appliances, some other plumbing work and some minor electrical repairs which we felt would be covered by the sum left over from the 4500.00 after the purchase of the furnace. We were not made aware of any of the material defects to the home even after repeated and specific questioning regarding the roof. I have elaborated on this in the following text.
We were in the home three times and spoke to the owner zzzz on all three occasions. She was physically living in the home and packing up when we saw the home with our realtor, aaaa Jr. of Remax Realty on Friday, June 20th. We again met and spoke with zzzz during our inspection of the home with MG of Discovery Inspections on Saturday, June 28th, and again a third time after the conclusion of our negotiations with the seller in mid July.
On our initial visit to the home, we had been concerned with the mansard style roof. In particular, my fiance, xxxx, had grown up in a mansard style roofed home and during his time in the home his father and mother had to deal with a partial roof cave in. I state this because I want to emphasize that my fiance and his family, with whom we were discussing the sale of the home, had extensive knowledge of the problems that can happen with a flat roof, and we were very careful to ask the owner several times during the course of the sale whether or not she had problems with the roof. It was very important to us that the roof was in good condition and it directly related to how we would negotiate the offer. On all occasions, no mention was made of any problems with leakage in response to questions to the owner.
June 20th, 2003: In our first conversation with the owner, my fiance asked her directly if she had problems with a flat roof. She simply stated that they had problems a while back, not elaborating on details, but added that the roof had been built up, so that it was not truly a flat roof, but had an angle to it and they had not had problems since. He also asked specifically if the roof was in good condition and she stated it was. He followed up with a question about window flashing and leakage and she replied that there were new windows and she had not seen any specific problems.
June 28th: Our second conversation with zzzz happened at the end of the inspection. She had left during the inspection, but had come back at the end and we had a conversation with her on some items we had noted during the inspection. During our inspection we had noted what looked like water damage in the back bedroom, and it was obvious that someone was in the middle of replastering and painting the ceiling and wall because of the open box of plaster, a ladder and some replastering tools. I asked about the water damage and replastering to zzzz and asked if she had any problems with the roof. She stated that it was older water damage and did not say more. I asked for more information and asked specifically if there were any problems with leakage in that room. She stated she was not aware of any current water problems. At that point we asked about the popcorn ceiling in one room because of concern with asbestos, and she then said that approximately 15 years ago that the ceiling had a cave in, and that they had replaced the roof and built it up, but that since then, there had been no problems, and that the ceiling was replaced after it was known that asbestos was damaging. I have learned since then that according to CJ, her selling realtor, that she had been aware of recent leakage from over the front door, and he assumed that she had it repaired. No mention of any of this was spoken to us, especially the above stated known issue with leakage over the door, and after speaking to her and being reassured there were no current problems, we assumed that indeed, there was no problem with the roof, and any damage we had seen was old, and due to the problems they had long ago. Our inspector had seen the roof, and had told us that we would need to keep the gutters clean and to keep our eye on one area that pooled, but other than that, it seemed to be okay. He recommended we ask the owner about any problems. Which we did, several times during our conversation after the inspection, and she stated having no problems at all with the roof, with the windows, or with leaking.
At this point we were satisfied with her answers which seemed to correspond with what our inspector had indicated, we had her signed disclosure statement that said she was not aware of any material defects, and we proceeded with negotiating the sale of the home, and not taking roof repairs into any of our negotiations, thinking this was a safe point. It bears mentioning that it had been a dry month, and therefore any water damage or leakage would not have been able to be seen on that day.
After we closed on the sale in July, we made plans to repaint and refloor the whole home. Part of the prep work involved scraping and sanding the walls and priming them. From the time of our closing until the week of August 8th we had no rain. We scraped the ceiling of the back bedroom where the ceiling had been plastered over and I noticed mildew on the plastered over sheetrock, which made me suspicious of back bedroom water damage. I made arrangements with a contractor to come and inspect the sheetrock and inspect for more damage Friday. I explained to him that I wanted the sheetrock removed and replaced if there was older water damage to it. Thursday night it rained. Friday morning we received a call from the subcontractor who had gone to the house to inspect/replace the sheetrock. He said that we had a problem on our hands, because there was water “that had poured in over the front door during the rainstorm” the previous night and that he had removed the ceiling sheetrock and that the insulation was so wet he could not continue until the roof was fixed. We immediately drove over and met the sub at our home while he called his boss and explained the situation. We walked through the home and noted water that had leaked in quite obviously in three different places, in the foyer below the front door where there was quite a noticeable puddle, on top of the mantelpiece in the upstairs living room where there was water and fresh moisture stains and we felt the wet insulation in the ceiling in the back bedroom. We waited for the contractor to show up and he looked at everything and basically said we would not be able to continue with anything upstairs until the roof was repaired and the wet sheetrock replaced. Since we were heading into a rainy week, we asked him to please start work and we would settle up later. We are awaiting a complete estimate from our contractor which we will fax over as soon as we get it.
We would appreciate the owner reimbursing us for the repairs to the leaky roof and for the wet sheetrock replacement arising from the leaks. [Name] is a licensed bonded and insured contractor and we would be happy to have copies of the receipts given directly to the owner for the repairs made.