does a seller have to disclose.... (house, buyers, home inspection)

[SpringMom3]

what a previous possible buyer found during their home inspection? ie. we had an accepted offer and the home inspection found some structural issues- the whole support for the addition was done incorrectly, and needs to be lifted up and the supports need to be changed out. (the windows in the patio do not even open due to the fact that the addition is tilting) we're hopefully going to work everything out, but someone told me that they should have disclosed it or if they didnt know, at least they will have to disclose it now to future buyers. i dont know about that- i didnt think they did and now i'm curious.

[DL0299]

Typical sucker trap. Old pieces of garbage falling apart with some flimsy additions to up the square footage in order to justify the stratospheric price tag. Why not? There is a see of suckers out there willing to enrich them beyond their wildest expectations. Your debt is their wealth...

We passed on dozens of those. So should you.

But rest assured: there will be plenty of reassuring post telling you that everything is all right coming right up. Exactly what you want to read.

Good luck.

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by SpringMom3

what a previous possible buyer found during their home inspection? ie. we had an accepted offer and the home inspection found some structural issues- the whole support for the addition was done incorrectly, and needs to be lifted up and the supports need to be changed out. (the windows in the patio do not even open due to the fact that the addition is tilting) we're hopefully going to work everything out, but someone told me that they should have disclosed it or if they didnt know, at least they will have to disclose it now to future buyers. i dont know about that- i didnt think they did and now i'm curious.

I would run away from that house. Even if the supports are fixed in the future, there are other structural elements that could be misaligned or have undergone premature stress and wear and tear from the original mistake.

Structural repair is the most expensive type of repair and structural issues often affect everything else in some way.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by SpringMom3

someone told me that they should have disclosed it or if they didnt know, at least they will have to disclose it now to future buyers.

This is true. Any defects uncovered in an inspection must be disclosed to future buyers. Unless, the homeowner immediately repairs those defects or the buyer fails to notify the seller of the specific defects. If a buyer backs out after an inspection but doesn't say "XYZ is wrong with the house" then the seller is unable to disclose the defects because they have no knowledge of them. I would say this is an unlikely set of circumstances as the majority of people will be glad to say why they're cancelling the contract or many will even give you a copy of the inspection report.

If there are structural questions surrounding this house and you really want to move forward, I would definitely encourage you to have a structural engineer look at the house. As Dan mentioned, this could be one of many structural issues with the house.

[jfitt]

Yes. And at the very least,, their realtor should have known that when they learned the deal with cancelled due to the structural issues. The realtor could lose his/ her license for not having the seller redo the paperwork.