Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Civil Code 2079, et seq.
I sell Real Estate in the Napa Valley area, an area called Suisun Valley. My question is on the from AID-11 Realtors are required to fill out this form with in 7 days of acceptance of the purchase agreement. I Currently have two vineyard parcels in escrow both of which the buyer and seller are getting a survey to identify the bounderies, the buyer has conducted their investigation with the local county as to what he can build on the property. The seller has disclosed that the property in some areas have standing water, the type of variety of grapes, root stock, irragation water, and the like.
Question? Is it required by law to perform an agent inspection on a property that has no improvements on it. other than the vineyard that was previously disclosed by the seller!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Civil Code 2079, et seq.
Civil Code section 2079 deals with residential real estate with one to four residential units. A self-described vineyard property may or may not fall under 2079, depending upon whether it has a residence or not. If there is no residence, I'd say it's pretty clear that 2079 doesn't apply. This doesn't mean that the broker or salesperson is without some obligation to investigate and disclose, but the obligation would be different from and probably much less than the 2079 requirements.
Going beyond this, let's suppose that the property is a premium 160-acre cabernet property near Rutherford, and the only other improvement is a little 600-square-foot foreman's cabin. Is it a residential property subject to 2079? Common sense would say no; but the black letters of the law doesn't make an exception. There may be cases decided on this point. If so, I haven't run across them in dealing with cases with similar (but not exactly the same) issues.
The bottom line is that caution suggests treating any property that has a one-to-four residence on it as requiring 2079 compliance.
If you hear anything more profound on this issue from anyone else, I'd like to know!
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