Quote:
Originally Posted by AngelBy
Some old houses were made with good material, but it depends on how the owners maintained them.
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The OP bought an older house. The seller probably hired a less than diligent roofer or did not follow that roofer's advise to replace not just the shingles but damaged rafters and decking. Rafters and decking typically get damaged when people wait too long to replace the shingles...
The OP seems to have hired an inspector. If home owner can now use their own bare hands to remove rotted rafter odds are inspection was not very thorough. Problem is most inspectors use contracts that make it but impossible to get anything out of them other than MAYBE the fee you paid 'em. That is not going to do much to pay for replacing rafters which will require tearing apart roof...
If OP does decide to consult with attorney I can guarantee that no attorney will be eager to take seller to court. Even if there is some kind of "proof" that seller told roofer to actively "hide" rotten rafters the general principle of "buyer beware" means the BUYER should not have expected anything other than old rotted roof in old house. Really. Heck, I have even seen cases where a buyer of BRAND NEW HOUSE had proof that builder used inferior framing members and the judge sided with the builder's attorney who basically said "the builder was selling cheap houses and the buyer got a cheap house"...
As some one else has said the important thing NOW is to fix this weakened roof. The right way to do it is to RIP OFF THE JUNKY SHINGLES, pull off any rotted decking, fixe and rotted rafters, reshingle and have a nice solid roof that will last 30+ years. If you do not get this done and you live in an area with snow be prepared to have the whole mess collapse on you and then good luck with that mess.
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Whole bunch of stuff getting mixed up together in this thread...
