need advice please help (disclosures, agent, insurance, attorney)

[JULIABABY01]

my heating furnace has malfactioned and now the latest one is that i have 4 leaking windows! luckily insurance covered the 700.00 dollar bill to fix the furnace (thank god). i thought my problems were over but here it is 4.00 in the morning, storming pretty bad outside, wake up to check on my little 6 year old and find water everywhere from 4 leaking windows!

when i purchased this 18 year old house 1 month ago, i got an inspection. shouldn't the inspector have noticed these problems!! i called him about the heating unit already and of course he said "it was working when i checked it" but what about the windows now - shouldn't he have noticed the seal was gone?? at this point i'm wondering what other surprises we'll find. it's ashame because sadly enough i'm starting to already have doubts about living here for a long period of time. i don't know if i "trust" this house if i'm having all these problems already.

Also i am thinking about calling my realtor because i'm sure the old owners knew of these problems (especially the windows and didn't disclose the problem. Is there anything i can do at this point legally??? I hate how dishonest people can be.

[Oobie119]

I don't have much experience in this area but this is what I would do: First, find any paperwork that the inspector may have given you. If necessary call the company or research on the internet to find out if ALL inspectors are required to check windows. If they are then I would jump the company's tail. Don't talk to your inspector, go over his head. Hopefully you have some paperwork with his signature, read the fine print to find out exactly what was signed. It sounds like that should have been checked, but they may have looked into the bigger things. You can't do much untiil you know for sure if he checked the windows, or if he was even required to..Good Luck

[LaceyEx]

When we sold in NJ the inspector checked every window-opened,closed, tilted them in. I know inspection regs vary from state to state but I think that that should be a normal check.

[Gretchen B]

Originally Posted by JULIABABY01

my heating furnace has malfactioned and now the latest one is that i have 4 leaking windows! luckily insurance covered the 700.00 dollar bill to fix the furnace (thank god). i thought my problems were over but here it is 4.00 in the morning, storming pretty bad outside, wake up to check on my little 6 year old and find water everywhere from 4 leaking windows!

when i purchased this 18 year old house 1 month ago, i got an inspection. shouldn't the inspector have noticed these problems!! i called him about the heating unit already and of course he said "it was working when i checked it" but what about the windows now - shouldn't he have noticed the seal was gone?? at this point i'm wondering what other surprises we'll find. it's ashame because sadly enough i'm starting to already have doubts about living here for a long period of time. i don't know if i "trust" this house if i'm having all these problems already.

Also i am thinking about calling my realtor because i'm sure the old owners knew of these problems (especially the windows and didn't disclose the problem. Is there anything i can do at this point legally??? I hate how dishonest people can be.

It might have been difficult for the home inspector to detect those things . . . or not. Some things honestly don't show up unless you're in the house when a storm hits, etc.

In my state we have very strict disclosure laws, and most definitely the sellers should have disclosed these things, and they're in big trouble if they don't.

If it were me, here's what I'd probably do.
1) Call my agent and talk with him/her about the situation. See what kind of suggestions s/he has. (Hopefully, the agent didn't represent both you and the sellers. If so, you'll probably not get much help from them.)
2) Depending on whether an equitable solution has been offered (i.e. calling the other agent to see if the sellers are willing to foot at least 1/2 the bill for the fixes), it not then I'd call the local board of realtors and ask them if they get involved in these kinds of disputes.
3) After ascertaining the answers to the above, I would probably call a local real estate or contract attorney and have him look over your contract and disclosures to determine what recourse you might have.
4) I'd probably look for a really good, certified home inspector and have the home reinspected. Granted, you hate to spend the extra money, but a person does wonder if there are other things that have not been disclosed. If you're going to go after the sellers for non-disclosure, you need to know if there are other things they're hiding. Also, a 2nd inspection may result in some liability for the 1st inspector if he totally missed several "easy-to-spot" items.

I hate that you've bought a home with some "issues". Every home will have a few, but when people intentionally hide problems, they should be forced to "fess up" and make things right.

[Silverfall]

I would get the house reinspected. If you can, go with a home inspector that uses thermal imaging.

You would have to prove that the sellers knew about the leaking windows and didn't disclose it. That had part is proving they knew about it.

As for the home inspector, some are excellent, some average, and some are bad. It really depends on their skill level.

I would call you real estate agent that represented you and talk over the situation.