Couple Forgoes An Inspection and Is Found Liable

[hausdok]

This is a story about a couple that bought a home in a Buffalo, NY suburb in a neighborhood where there are known issues with sinking homes. The couple relied on reassurances from a seller and a listing agent that there weren't any problems with the foundation and opted not to get the home inspected.

After taking possession, the couple discovered that the former owners had lied when asserting in writing that the home was not in the area where homes are sinking. In fact, the sellers had even tried to get the home assessed at a lower rate due to reduced resale value due to soils issues.

In a jury trial, the sellers and their agent were found guilty of having concealed known facts. The buyers were awarded the original purchase price of the house, plus they get to keep the house.

Interestingly, the sellers were only found to be 75% liable; the listing agent was found to be 20% liable and the complainants - the buyers - were found 5% liable due to their own negligence - presumably for not bothering to have had a home inspection done.

To read the whole story, click here.

[Tom Raymond]

Anyone who buys in Amherst has more money than brains. The frist step in any development project there is to build a drainage pond, some are more like small lakes, to dry the marsh so that roads and utilities can be installed. They've been doing that since the early 80's, maybe longer. Now we have to do soil testing for every new build or addition in the County because the houses built on swamp land sink. Who'd a thunk it?

Tom

[hausdok]

The frist step in any development project there is to build a drainage pond, some are more like small lakes, to dry the marsh so that roads and utilities can be installed.

Tom

That's pretty much the norm here.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Tom Raymond]

Do the homes that back the drainage ponds come with docks? I have seen at least two developments in Amherst where they do. The developers market these bodies of water as if they were desirable, and go so far as to landscape them so they look natural, none of the buyers realize they would be parking gondolas in their garages without them. Shifting several tens of acres of water from a site doesn't make it a good place to build. Proper land reclamation isn't that simple.

Tom