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Brand new first time home buyer with a few questions.
My husband and I bought a house in middle Georgia that had been a flipped foreclosure where the seller is a licensed real estate agent in the area and did most of the work himself. New windows, new roof, new pool and cement slab, refinished floors making the house look really well done. The inspection came back with small things that didn't raise any flags ie we should install more insulation in the attic for the winter since the existing insulation was blown in and has settled over the years.
3 months into owning the home I was in the hall bath taking a shower, heard a huge crack and over the course of the next few days the floor started to slope down 4-5 inches towards the exterior wall. My husband climbed under the house and found horrendous water damage to the subfloor and the support beams stemming from the old toilet leaking over the course of many years (the sellers installed all new toilets). He also saw that there had been new wood wedged in and looked like a DIY resupport job.
We ended up pulling up all of the bathroom, the sellers had just tiled over the existing 1960s tile, irritating but not the worst problem. We pulled up all the tile and the subfloor basically crumbled apart. The seller had installed new PEX tubing for plumbing so either the seller or a plumber hired by them drilled through the rotten subfloor to connect the toilet.
It's going to cost us a pretty penny to have the repair done correctly and none of this was disclosed at time of purchase. The inspector came back out and was extremely apologetic and offered to help us make it right.
We are just at a loss, we would not have bought this house had we know about the structural problem.
I've attached a photo of the damage (sorry about the shaky quality), the house also sat vacant for a while before the seller purchased the home.
Thanks for the input SouthernBelleInUtah. I don't know if the monetary damage is enough to warrant paying the fees and expenses of an attorney. I will be calling around and seeing what I can find out though.
Do you have any idea of the cost to properly repair? I expect you would not live there without the repair being done so at this time, you need to get the repair done. Considering legal action comes next and must be weighed against the repair cost.
I would document all (pictures, verbiage, estimate/invoices copies, time line, etc.) to be prepared for legal action.
Well we're lucky enough to have other bathrooms to use so we've just masked off the one with the damage. We're fairly handy and can do the finishing work but had to call someone in to do the structural repairs. Rough estimate right now is 1500-2000 for 5 joists, the rim joist and then subfloor and 18-24" up some wall studs. It's not dauntingly expensive but the house was sold "fully renovated and turn key" with a clean inspection :/
We're getting all our ducks in a row, keeping records of everything and I've taken about 50-60 photos of the area.
Thanks for the advice.
there had been new wood wedged in and looked like a DIY resupport job.
Looking at the photo, its possible the support piece under the beam was used to level the floor. Hard to tell from the one photo. Looks like a really old home from the looks of that beam. No way to really see that rot unless you look at it from above. Unless that floor was removed by the renovator, its possible he didnt know about it.
Did your inspector ever climb under the house?
PS. Old houses have issues. I wish you luck.
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