jimbloby7

We have bought a house and it is coming to light that there is a lot wrong with it that has been skipped over, and that the seller has mis informed us of, do we have any protection and what do we do?

The real estate guy says it is 'as is', but i cant find anything that says sold as is in the document we have?

advice please?

Keith

Used Car, used house, no warranty unless negotiated before purchase.

Steve_P

Different provinces have different rules regarding disclosure of faults in a home, so it would be helpful if you told us where this house is.

Helen Parnell

As a realtor in Alberta there are certain things we would have to know before we can really give advice.

Where is the house? Different laws different provinces.

Do you have a home inspection done. Anything wrong that can be seen should be picked up then.

If it is in Alberta, if there were appliances that do not work then they are often mentioned in purchase contract as being 'as is' meaning they do not work. In a standard purchase contract there is a clause stating everything should work.

If there was a material latent defect or some hidden fact about the house which would affect your decision to buy then that is down to the realtors disclosing to each other. For example if the house had previously been a grow op and had been passed as safe to live in then some people may not want to buy that house because of the history. The seller would have to tell the realtor and then the sellers realtor tell the buyers realtor. If you are not informed then you would have to find out who did not tell who.

Aviator

Unless there was one of these, a Seller Property Information Statement (which I would never sign when selling a house) you are probably pretty much on your own. It depends how you define mis informed, did they out right lie to you or just not tell you or repairs done badly? Did you have a home inspection undertaken? What steps did you take to protect yourself in the purchase? Many purchases in Canada are buyer beware. What sort of things are wrong with it?

The only advice is to go to a lawyer with all your documentation and seek professional help. Even if you are in the right, it could well be a long hard battle (and costly).

islandboy

Every contract of purchase and sale will have a disclosure sheet if this has not been filled out honestly then you have legal comeback.

Aviator

No they won't, there is no requirement or obligation to complete or sign these.

ann m

When we bought our house, the sellers filled out one of these disclosure forms, and after the purchase, I'm 95% certain they lied on it. At this time, I have no issues with my house at all - but does anyone know how long a period of time their responses are 'valid' should anything crop up in the future? I'm not anticipating anything - just wondered ....

Aviator

I am no lawyer, but I believe that if they lied on it and you can prove it then there is no time limit. However the longer you leave it the harder it would be to prove. You would have to prove that any defect was there before you bought it and that they knew about it. From a sellers perspective I would never complete one of these forms. If I recall correctly when they sign the form it says something like to the best of their knowledge. So it would depend on what was wrong and proving they knew about it. No matter what, it is often a long hard battle and quite costly to take this to task. You would be far better to talk to a lawyer to be sure of your position.

MB-Realtor

Its very hard to prove a lie, most Property information sheets are worded:-

To the best of your knowledge............


or similar.


To go to Court and win you would have to have to have proof that they actually knew about it when they completed the document, and that can be very hard to prove.

In Manitoba it would also have to be something that rendered the house "as potentially dangerous to occupants of unsuitable for its intended purpose" eg a "Latent Defect". If its anything else "Caveat Emptor" applies.

MB-Realtor

Having said what i did above, I should add that an outright lie if provable can be taken to court IF you have suffered damages that you can quantify, eg: In the listing it stated that the furnace was 3 years old and still had 2 years left on its warranty. When it went wrong we found that the warranty was not transferable, it cost us $600 to repair.

If you took the Realtor (who wrote the listing) to small claims court you would most probably be awarded part if not all of the cost of the repair.

But with small claims courts it depends how the "judge" is feeling that day.

jimbloby7

The defects that are coming out are roof, electrics and septic.

The roof we were told, as in our home buyers report said that there had been some leaking around the flashing on the dormers and the roof had 2-3 years left in it, so we knew that, but when we have had the roofing company out the front entire roof has had it, which i can confirm because i went up prier to them coming out and noticed the sieve we had instead of the ashpalt shingles.

The electrics as in the report says that the wiring has some minors which need repairing, such as aluminium wires and some loose wires, when the electrician came out, he showed us that the wiring was over loaded, increased fuse sizes and incorrect wire size, this looks like the previous owner?

The septic tank we were told by the previous owner it did not need emptying and that it was located somewhere in the field, the septic tank is full and located under the deck which we had to rip up to get to it.

I know that i bought a fixer upper, but when i cant get home insurance and there are lies that have been told to us, it feels like the home owner the realtor and home inspection guy where all in on it, i feel someone else should be picking up the bill.

Almost Canadian

Limitation in Alberta is 2 years so you are likely already out of time to sue. This depends upon "discoverability" which may extend the time. Fraud is different but civil fraud claims (which requires significantly more than simply lying) are very difficult to win.

Almost Canadian

The Standard Purchase Contracts that realtors use in Alberta also state that the parties agree that the only representations that have been made are contained in the contract itself. Attempting to rely on any other representations then becomes virtually impossible - another reason not to use realtors to deal with the legal issues - but that's another argument

Almost Canadian

Where are you? What lies were told and by whom? It sounds like your inspector gave you wrong information rather than the vendor - what does the purchase contract say about representations, what did it say about the septic tank? If it was silent, why? What did your realtor recommend you to put into the contract in relation to the septic tank? It sounds like you may have a claim for negligence against your inspector. Which realtor do you think lied to you? Expect to have to pay lots in legal fees and for the resolution to take years.