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Question about sellers disclosure law- hi we are selling our house and have learnt from a buyers inspection that there could be a potential moisture penetration in our basement ( he said so because he saw a sob board in the sheathing that had some black discoloration but was bone dry to touch) We have been living heere for the past 7 years and have never experienced any issue dampness/ leak etc in the concerned area, and the sellers disclosure given by the previous owners before us has mentioned nothing either.
When we learnt about this issue ( as the offer fell through! ) we made an addendum to our sellers disclosure and mentioned exactly what happened and what the inspector had said.( including the possible causes of the board deterioration.
I am wondering how much more am I suppose to do- do I need a stucco expert to give me a clean chit or do other research or is the fact that I have disclosed everything I know enough! My realtor feels i should dig further into this and have a thermal imaging done- is that something i must undertake as we are closing in two weeks and I don't feel I need to know more. The current prospective buyer had this information before his home inspector came inane yet got a clean chit of bill from the inspector. Please advice as I am terribly confused and have no time! We currently reside in PA
Last edited by Sadseller; 04-25-2012 at 09:25 PM..
You have to disclose what you know. You do not need to go hire someone to do research, unless you feel that the original inspection was incorrect and you are trying to prove there is not a problem.
You could get someone to measure the moisture level in the board and surrounding areas to see if there is a higher % in one area over another "normal" area in the same general vicinity. If that does show higher content, then you could decide what to do next. I have done this numerous times to pinpoint a mysterious leak or check out a suspicious spot. Wood floor installers always have these meters, as do many contractors and the flood remediation companies, and sometimes a carpet cleaning company because they do some water extraction for floods occasionally.
Home inspectors are not experts in every conceivable construction scenario. I've had them miss HUGE things (my own house, no less!) or, like you, zero in on something that could be nothing. I think if it were my home, I would want to know but the previous poster is 100% correct - you do not have to do anything but disclose disclose disclose what you know.
Disclose what you know. If it is an issue to an interested buyer you can then decide what to do in order to get the deal done. There may be nothing that you need to do. A buyer can pay for a mold inspection themselves after reading what you have disclosed. Right now, I would just disclose it and see what happens.
Disclosure is only about what you know. Doing research because someone said something isn't something you know. It's something you're trying to find out, and that's beyond the scope of a disclosure.
When we learnt about this issue ( as the offer fell through! )we made an addendum to our sellers disclosure and mentioned exactly what happened and what the inspector had said.( including the possible causes of the board deterioration.
I am wondering how much more am I suppose to do- do I need a stucco expert to give me a clean chit or do other research or is the fact that I have disclosed everything I know enough! My realtor feels i should dig further into this and have a thermal imaging done- is that something i must undertake as we are closing in two weeks and I don't feel I need to know more. The current prospective buyer had this information before his home inspector came inane yet got a clean chit of bill from the inspector. Please advice as I am terribly confused and have no time! We currently reside in PA
So you obviously got a second offer and gave them the addendum to the disclosure. Did they sign it? If so, you should be good to go.
Issues such as this really depend on your state/local laws. I'd definitely recommend an attorney. There's always a balancing act between complying with the law, yet not do much more than that and putting yourself at a disadvantage by disclosing things that you are not sure of.
I've sold a few houses that previously had termites. I knew that in advance and bought the houses for investment purposes. I did a professional job remediating the damage and my attorney still had me disclose the extent of the initial damage as well as the work I did to repair it.
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) we made an addendum to our sellers disclosure and mentioned exactly what happened and what the inspector had said.( including the possible causes of the board deterioration.
