Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

I purchased my first home in February 2012. In the last two months i had two floods. First flood the water just got into my shed and the second flood the water was 6 inches away from the siding of the house and made the cinder block foundation on one wall cave in. I talked to the son in law of the previous owner and he asked if i had flood insurance and i dont and he said that the previous owners had to have it. This was a private sale between the seller and me and i did not recieve a list of disclosures. Is there any legal actions i can take.


Asked on 6/03/13, 11:12 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Probably not because:

1. the sale was so private you apparently decided not even to bother with an attorney and had no lender: an attorney would have told you that a full disclosure is required by state law, and just about every lender requires a flood certification AND if the property is in certain FEMA zones, flood insurance.

2. the rains we've had in the past couple of months have totally devastated various areas and appear to be extremely unusual. Unless you can prove that the seller fraudulently withheld information about the property from you, the likelihood is you have no case against them.

What you need to do, however, for a proper evaluation of your situation, is to take the purchase agreement and all closing documents to an attorney for a proper review.

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Answered on 6/03/13, 5:17 pm


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