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A chain drive opener is like $99.
The super-deluxe belt-drive unit with battery backup, extra keypad, etc is just over $200.
It isn't worth arguing about.
The heat exchanger should have been caught by the home inspector, as well as the opener - if you didn't notice the opener,
I can't see why you would expect an agent to notice.
The idea that the previous owners knew about a cracked heat exchanger & continued to live in the house with it broken is silly.
No one would do that unless they're suicidal.
Enjoy your used house, and be sure to budget for repairs, life happens.
So, I'm a bit confused. You were told that there was no garage door opener, and went ahead with the purchase. Therefore, you had no expectation that an opener would be included. You then found that the home actually has an opener, but it is broken. What difference does it make? Are you upset that you may need to remove it yourself? Can you manually open/close the garage door? The opener should have a manual disconnect feature.
No, I'm upset because two agent are incompetent and/or lied, the sellers more than likely lied...what else have they lied about that we have yet to find (since we only been in the house for 4 days). What happened to being honest? Both my husband & I would never not disclose anything that was broken or about be be broken.
No, I'm upset because two agent are incompetent and/or lied, the sellers more than likely lied...what else have they lied about that we have yet to find (since we only been in the house for 4 days). What happened to being honest? Both my husband & I would never not disclose anything that was broken or about be be broken.
It seems like this is where people don't agree with you. Personally I don't view this as a lie. If they would have said it had an automatic opener and didn't disclose it was broken that would be a lie.
So I looked this up, in my mind a broken opener is completly different than No opener, plus two agents did the walk through & are now claiming that didn't see the opener.
In your mind and the law are two separate things. And how do you plan to prove that the agents saw the opener? And what difference does it make? If the garage door opener is broken, you still don't have one.
Quote:
According to Virginia law, real estate agents must disclose all known material facts related to the property or concerning the transaction of which the agent has actual knowledge.
The key phrase here is "actual knowledge".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zippyman
The idea that the previous owners knew about a cracked heat exchanger & continued to live in the house with it broken is silly.
No one would do that unless they're suicidal.
Exactly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ddhldh2651
Both my husband & I would never not disclose anything that was broken or about be be broken.
Honey, if you can determine that a furnace or anything else is about to be broken, you could be a millionaire and you wouldn't have to worry about this house business.
I personally think you are the one with the problem
you weren't there for the inspection, 1st mistake
you ewren't there for the walkthrough.. 2nd mistake
you assumed that the realtor would check everything...... really?
I don't know much about heat exchangers so I don't really know A) if the inspector should have been able to see the crack, B) if it could have developed in between inspection and close or C) most likely the realtors caused this during their walkthrough to **** you off.
I have no idea why you wren't there for the inspection or walkthrough, life gets in the way, but for certian things you should be there for to ensure you're getting what you thought you bought. I'm not sure what your issue is with the opener, you weren't promised one and you have one attached that doesn't work.
Thanks for all the answers, althought I do feel that the sellers didn't disclosed & the inspector missed the issues with the furnace. I just don't know how to prove any of this or if it is going to waste my time running around in circles.
BTW we found out about the automatic garage door opener until the day we moved in, while didn't the sellers just state the the opener was broken instaed of lying? How did both agents not walk in the garage & see the opener bolted to the ceiling?
DD
So you let the agents do the walk through prior to closing. Closing being the time they got paid, so they went to closing and both said all is fine, close, pay us..............hmmmmmmm
There are a lot of clueless people out there who don't pay attention to mechanical noises in their house, let alone their garage, and might never have noticed the sounds, and if they did, they might not know they weren't normal sounds for the furnace to be making. So I really doubt they knew about it and didn't fix it on purpose. If the furnace was working last winter, they probably assumed all was well.
As for the garage opener: in my area, the disclosure form is a whole bunch of little boxes that say "none/not included", "working", "not working", etc. So if they marked "none/not included", when in fact it is there, but "not working", that is technically an incorrect disclosure. But the difference between "not working" and "not included" on a garage opener is pretty minor. A "win" on this matter means the prior homeowner comes into your garage and removes the opener. You could do that yourself. So I'm not sure what you are upset over. Let it go. The agents didn't look at it because 1: It wasn't part of the deal, so they had no reason to look at it, and 2: Agents aren't inspectors, and have no obligation to tell you whether something is working or not.
Oh, and I can't even picture what type of garage door opener can be installed and yet hidden by boxes. Do they not hang from the middle of the garage ceiling in your area, with big metal beams running down the sides of where the door rolls up? Those boxes would have to have filled the garage wall to wall, floor to ceiling. If that was the case, then it isn't the inspector's fault for missing it. Along that same subject, could the inspector even reach the furnace to do a full inspection? Sounds like access could have been a problem.
No, I'm upset because two agent are incompetent and/or lied, the sellers more than likely lied...what else have they lied about that we have yet to find (since we only been in the house for 4 days). What happened to being honest? Both my husband & I would never not disclose anything that was broken or about be be broken.
The agents more than likely weren't looking for the garage door opener. The house was being sold without one so I know it wouldn't occur to me to confirm that there wasn't one there. When I do final walk throughs for my out of area clients, I am running water, turning on lights, etc. Looking at walls, floors, etc for damage. I'm not looking for a garage door opener that I don't expect to be there.
I could totally see your agent walking into the garage to confirm that everything was out and it was clean. That's what I would be looking for. I would walk into the house and hit the thermostat and punch it up to confirm the heat was still working. I would be inside testing the heat, not the garage listening to the furnace. While your guy thinks that it would pop it doesn't mean it happened while they were there. They would have no way of knowing that the heat exchanger was cracked.
The purpose of the walk through is to confirm that the property is in the same condition as of the time of the offer. It sounds like it was.
Along that same subject, could the inspector even reach the furnace to do a full inspection? Sounds like access could have been a problem.
We've had that happen here and I will move the boxes. You have to remove the panels to inspect the furnace. I would think that the inspector would note on the report if he couldn't fully inspect the furnace. If he didn't, he's a bad inspector. A client needs to know if something prohibited him from doing a full inspection that they paid for.
I mean when it snows here, they can't inspect the roof so it says that on the inspection reports.
I honestly don't get how they missed the garage door opener either, especially since most of them have buttons by the entry door into the house and I have never seen boxes stacked so high that they cover all of the chains and the motor. That's a lot o' boxes. I am guessing the agent was doing other things while the inspector was there and not following him around. Might not have even stepped foot in the garage. I don't know.
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