When we bought our house 5 years ago we were told it was hooked up to city sewer. I found our contract and the seller stated it is. Recently a county health inspector was in the neighborhood checking the sewer and asked me to flush some die so he could check something. I did and he was looking down the manhole in front of my house for a while, but nothing came through. He kept asking me if I was sure I was hooked up, and finally gave up.
So I started trying to find out and apparently if we were on sewer, we would be getting a separate bill, which we don't. I really think we actually have a septic tank that now hasn't been maintained in 5 years! I will be getting confirmation ASAP, and getting an inspection done, but do I have any legal recourse if they find any major problems?
If it makes any difference, the man we bought the house from was a house flipper...so he may have been misinformed to begin with.
i do not know much about US law but i would think you would have legal options. Although they could well say its your responsibility to check before buying. Either way that sucks.
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The seller probably knew about it already. You may not be able to do anything if there is a statue of limitations on the time that you can take action. Best bet is to contact a real estate attorney
I think once you sign off on the deal it's official. The previous owner could just say that you caused the damages or they occured after ownership transferred hands.
If you bought the house with the intention of living in it then I would say every house has it's suprise expenses, there's no getting around that. If you bought the house to flip, that's another story and you would probably want full disclosure.
Did you check what your state's statute of limitations are as somebody mentioned above?
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What state are you in? Did you receive a Property Condition Disclosure Statement? If so, you may have recourse to sue. If not and the seller made no representations then it is "let the buyer beware."
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Sep 22, 2008, 02:22:10 PM
