home owners

Soon2BeMrs2006 Posted: Jul 10, 2006 11:48 AM

home owners

Question anyone have a situation where if oyur offer is accepted and the owner chooses not to disclose what might be worong with the house they write you a check for 500 dollars. Of course an inspector will inspect the house regardless, but the owner/seller has otpion of disclosing any probs with the home or not doing that and paying 500 to the buyer.

Is this common?

plainview Posted: Jul 10, 2006 12:16 PM

Re: home owners

Yes, and most sellers lawyers will give you the 500 at closing.
They most likly werent the original owners and dont want to be held liable for something that happened or existed that they dont know about, before they lived there.

This is standard.

Just make sure you get your inspection!!

HTH

eden Posted: Jul 10, 2006 12:19 PM

Re: home owners

As far as I know, the home owners are definitely required to divulge every defective condition that they are aware of. Failure to do so would constitute deliberate concealment of known property defect, and in most states that is a violation of the law...

You would definitely not want to be a part of violating any law. Forget the $500, sounds like a shady proposal, and ask them what defects they know about, including asking to see the home inspection report they had before they purchase their home.

Good luck!

Soon2BeMrs2006 Posted: Jul 10, 2006 06:55 PM

Re: home owners

Thanks anyone else?

tomsgirl07 Posted: Jul 10, 2006 06:59 PM

Re: home owners

I've never heard of that before. I think they can have some kind of 'as is' clause, but it depends on the state. No matter what you do, get an inspection- even if they won't agree to fix any items that are found, at least you'll know what you're getting into.

MissMelissa Posted: Jul 10, 2006 07:08 PM

Re: home owners

lets just say i have yet to see anyone not give the 500 and i have worked for a lawyer for five yrs

12-3Princess Posted: Jul 10, 2006 07:11 PM

Re: home owners

There are certain types of 'latent' conditions of the home (those not easily discoverable) such as drainage issues, for example, that they have to disclose with or without that 500 dollar check.

curliegirl Posted: Jul 10, 2006 07:11 PM

Re: home owners

Any homeowner who wouldn't give the $$ is silly.....they are then responsible for problems with the house....

Get a good inspector

12-3Princess Posted: Jul 10, 2006 07:12 PM

Re: home owners

PS: of course still get the inspection! That 500 dollars is kind of a cover their a$$ type of thing - if there are any defects found during inspection (and there always are, just severity will vary of course), you will have right to cancel for any of the defects found.

cjb88 Posted: Jul 10, 2006 07:34 PM

Re: home owners

this is very common... when we closed on our house my lawyer was actually shocked that the people we bought our house from actually filled out the form instead of giveing the $$ over... all it was was a check list that they filled out... it really didnt even have that much info on it... i was bummed... we were hoping for the extra $$

Soon2BeMrs2006 Posted: Jul 11, 2006 10:23 AM

Re: home owners

what if the owner is the original and only owner of the house. is there still an original inspection report?

FallBride05 Posted: Jul 11, 2006 10:35 AM

Re: home owners

NY sounds different from NJ - kind of surprised actually.

At each house we went to see, there were copies of the sellers disclosure form left for potential buyers to take. I think it's a must in NJ that sellers disclose 'known' issues, such as past leaks in the basement, roof..etc.

Once we had our inspector look at the house after they accepted our bid and the inspector gave us his feedback. Then if there were any issues the sellers needed to address, they could choose to fix it prior to closing, or have us get estimates and we would get a credit at closing to fix those issues ourselves.

Blu-ize Posted: Jul 11, 2006 11:04 AM

Re: home owners

Never heard of that. We had the house inspected found some things needed addressing and they fixed all of them.

Reesa Posted: Jul 11, 2006 11:17 AM

Re: home owners

Posted by plainview

Yes, and most sellers lawyers will give you the 500 at closing.
They most likly werent the original owners and dont want to be held liable for something that happened or existed that they dont know about, before they lived there.

This is standard.

Just make sure you get your inspection!!

HTH

I agree No worries.