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I wouldn't do anything. I would wait and see if they have a lawyer letter sent. If they do, then I would hire an attorney and let them handle it. I wouldn't worry about it. Their own inspector found a leak and they didn't ask for it to be repaired. That's their own fault! There may not have been mold the day of the inspection. Here we are how many weeks/months later?
The letter was from the buyer asking for the money by July 20 otherwise he will be contacting an attorney. I am calling an attorney tomorrow I will let you know what happens. I have a copy of the inspection report and it does mention the leak and has a picture under the sink with no mention of mold. He choice not to have me fix the leak.
Well, if the inspection report mentions an under the sink leak, I would say the new owners were made aware of it, so it isn't as though you tried to hide the information from them. If the new owners failed to see that the leak was fixed-even if they just forgot about it, just like you said you did, and the house went to closing, seems the onus of any leak-related issues is now on them, not you. Every real estate disclosure form I ever read simply requires the seller to disclose any problems or issues they know about with the property to the buyers, and it seems the buyers were made aware of that leak if they read the inspection report.Since no mention was made about mold on the report, there is no way to know if it was there at the time of inspection, or when it subsequently became a problem. And didn't you say this was an inspector hired by the buyers? If they are trying to blame the inspector for missing problems, wouldn't that be on them since they hired the guy?
Seems to me they are just trying to get money from you. In your shoes I would probably tell them to go fly a kite, but maybe you do need an attorney to at least advise you of your options. You don't know what else they might come up with that they want you to pay to "fix".
I wouldn't do anything. I would wait and see if they have a lawyer letter sent. If they do, then I would hire an attorney and let them handle it. I wouldn't worry about it. Their own inspector found a leak and they didn't ask for it to be repaired. That's their own fault! There may not have been mold the day of the inspection. Here we are how many weeks/months later?
Agreed..
but that also raises the question of why didn't they ask for that to be repaired? They asked for other things to be fixed.
I think they set out to scam you from the start OP.
I agree that this is probably not going to go anywhere. The buyers would have to be able to prove that you knew of the mold and covered it up. And how would they do that? Also, attorneys seem to only jump at the chance to sue someone if there is harm/medical issues involved. No doctor is going to say that respiratory problems are definitely linked to mold exposure.
I know all of this from first hand experience on the flip side. Although in our case, we had neighbors confirm the prior owner knew of the mold plus our 4 month old was having severe respiratory issues. Even that wasn't enough for an attorney to take our case. And we spoke with several.
Not saying you covered it up at all but wanted to tell you that even though we knew our sellers covered it up, suing was not an option. Good luck OP!
As others have said, I personally wouldn't do anything until a summons was handed to me by the constable or whoever runs around town delivering summonses where you live. I'd also ignore any letters from their attorney drinking buddy fishing for money (I lived that one once).
I highly doubt you'd get sued. They can't possibly win. Call an attorney only if you get sued. Otherwise, absolutely do not communicate with this person. If they show up at your door or call and harass you, you might need an attorney to get a restraining order if the guy is a true fruit loop.
I'm kind of laughing thinking about all the problems that turned up in my house as I was remodeling. A bit of mold under the kitchen sink is pretty laughable.
California law requires a seller to reveal if there is a mold problem. As yours apparently was caused by a leak under the sink, and that leak has gone on for a long time to develop extensive mold. And you made no effort to fix the leak.
The leak extent was not shown in the report on the home, and the buyers apparently felt it was just a little leak that needed something tightened up and not really a problem, and were not familiar with California mold in the walls. The mold was probably found, when they had someone in to repair the leak.
The leak is apparently a long standing problem, and you did not reveal the leak as a problem in the disclosure statement. Get that before a judge, and it can easily be shown to be your negligence, in not repairing the leak which is the cause of the mold. You will say you forgot, but the buyers attorney can make a good case, you did not reveal the problem, as you knew there was mold and wanted to sell the home without solving the problem. Saying I forgot to reveal the leak, is not a defense you want to use in court. It just makes you look guilty.
Due to the $9,000 cost to solve the problem it can be assumed the mold is in the wall and things will have to be torn out and redone after getting the mold out. So $9,000 is not out of the ball park for that type of damage. Some posters that say just fix the leak and spray with tile-x to solve the problem, are not familiar with the type of mold you get in California. Termites and mold, are two serious problems along the coastal areas. Both infect the inside of the walls themselves and often are not visible. To repair, you basically have to open up the wall, remove the damage done and repair and replace what had to be removed. In all my years in the real estate brokerage business, I have seen some times it would take a lot more than $9,000 to fix the problem, and sometimes it would be cheaper to tear a house down and rebuild it, than to try to get mold out of a large part of the house. Just depends on how far it has spread hidden away in the walls.
California law requires a seller to reveal if there is a mold problem. As yours apparently was caused by a leak under the sink, and that leak has gone on for a long time to develop extensive mold. And you made no effort to fix the leak.
The leak extent was not shown in the report on the home, and the buyers apparently felt it was just a little leak that needed something tightened up and not really a problem, and were not familiar with California mold in the walls. The mold was probably found, when they had someone in to repair the leak.
The leak is apparently a long standing problem, and you did not reveal the leak as a problem in the disclosure statement. Get that before a judge, and it can easily be shown to be your negligence, in not repairing the leak which is the cause of the mold. You will say you forgot, but the buyers attorney can make a good case, you did not reveal the problem, as you knew there was mold and wanted to sell the home without solving the problem. Saying I forgot to reveal the leak, is not a defense you want to use in court. It just makes you look guilty.
Due to the $9,000 cost to solve the problem it can be assumed the mold is in the wall and things will have to be torn out and redone after getting the mold out. So $9,000 is not out of the ball park for that type of damage. Some posters that say just fix the leak and spray with tile-x to solve the problem, are not familiar with the type of mold you get in California. Termites and mold, are two serious problems along the coastal areas. Both infect the inside of the walls themselves and often are not visible. To repair, you basically have to open up the wall, remove the damage done and repair and replace what had to be removed. In all my years in the real estate brokerage business, I have seen some times it would take a lot more than $9,000 to fix the problem, and sometimes it would be cheaper to tear a house down and rebuild it, than to try to get mold out of a large part of the house. Just depends on how far it has spread hidden away in the walls.
It would need to be a pretty big leak to cause issues like you seem to be touching on. In order to have mold where it overtakes the cabinetry rots wood etc it would need to be a pretty damn big leak. And nobody is going to forget that. What I don't understand is how did OP go with the ongoing leak or a extended period. It had to be a tiny drop at a time because if it was a big leak it would destroy cabinets in no time.
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