Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Georgia
Before we purchased a home we suspected the A/c had problems. Our Realtor added an amendment to the contract to ensure the a/c would be serviced/inspected. The a/c company doing the servicing signed off on the a/c units as ok. The appraisal was also pending the a/c unit was ok. When we took possession of the property we immediately found the a/c was not working. We contacted the same company. This time they sent the residential division. (The company that came out had a working relationship with the homeowner so they originally sent the commercial div. So there was no objectivity in our opinion.) Nevertheless, the same company found multiple problems with the unit. It had froze up. He said the filter had not been changed in a long time and he could not put it back into the unit because of its condition. We contacted the appraiser and asked him how he approved the price when the a/c was not working. He would not help. We also contacted the Realtor and the mortgage company to complain. It fell on death ears with them as well. We complained to our realtor that we could have negotiated the price of the house due to a broken a/c or had a new a/c installed before we purchased the home or even, walked away to look for a new home!! Nevertheless, nobody wanted to help us. The a/c company offered to put in a new unit at "their" cost. So when they made the offer, we checked their pricing with another local company. Would you believe the other company offered the very same model for almost 2000 less? When I confronted the a/c company manager he told me I was questioning his integrity and would not offer the a/c at "their" cost if we didn't stop. Because of health issues we took their offer b/c they said they could have it financed. This whole thing is wrong, wrong, wrong. The BBB would not allow a complaint against the company b/c it was not us who paid for the company to come out initially. So much for "Consumer Protection" advocates. Having no integrity is not against the law, but what happened to us was just wrong. Where are the lawyers who help those who have been wronged?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Had the AC been in that bad of a condition any competent home inspector would have found the problems. What did your inspector say? If you did not hire one, it is a major omission on your part Why did you not have an HVAC company of your choosing do an inspection since it was a major issue in the contract? That was another time to protect yourself. You paid $2,000 more for an AC unit from a company you didn't trust just because they offered financing? As far as the comment about lawyers, they are all over the place. Many would be glad to look at your issues and expect payment for the time. It is highly unlikely you have a viable claim.
It sounds like you messed up and now wonder where the lawyers were. ANY home buyer should do TWO things - one is to get a HOME INSPECTOR (you don't mention one, so I assume you didn't). And since teh AC was a concern, the other person you should have hired for a very small sum was your own lawyer to review the sales contract before you signed (you could easily have had a provision that either guaranteed the AC or provided other remedies). If you decided to save a few hundred dollars and skip those steps, you sadly learned an expensive lesson. And paying $2000 extra to an AC company you distruct because they do financing is really strange, as almst every AC company offers financing, so there's not a remedy for overpaying. The fact that the BBB didn't help you should somewhat suggest that there's not a claim, but most lawyers, for the cost of a consult can review paperwork if you want to do that.
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