Question: Long story short, I came
home from vacation to major water damage in my home. It seems that my
second-floor toilet tank cracked and water ran for almost a week.
When the demolition crew was taking out walls they discovered that
there was a fire in our home, at one time. We have lived in our home since 1992
and during the selling process there was no mention of there being a fire in
the house. There needs to be some insulation and drywall work that is not
covered under the water damage.
The previous owner of this house was the real estate agent. Do we
have any recourse in this situation?
Answer: The first questions an
attorney for the former owners would probably ask would go like this: You have
lived in this house for 15 years. How does anyone know that you did not have a
fire at some point in your residency and that in making repairs you did not
include insulation?
How do you know the agent-owner was responsible? Did anyone else
own the property? Could the fire have occurred while the home was under
construction? Do you know for a fact that there was insulation in place when
the property was originally built? What if the broker hired a contractor to do
repair work after the fire and the contractor -- without the owner's knowledge
-- did not install the insulation? How many of us, after all, break down walls
to look for insulation?
What, exactly, are the damages here? Were your heating and air
conditioning bills higher than they should have been? How much higher?
What were the disclosure requirements in your state 15 years ago?
Given the time, cost and irritation of a lawsuit, why not just fix
the damage and be grateful that much of the cost for a better wall is covered
by insurance.
