Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Iowa

Re: fraud

Probably not. The seller is obligated to disclose known defects on the property itself but typically has no obligation to reveal information about other properties in the general vicinity. Further, the fact that there was a petition two months before your purchase indicates that the new farm was public knowledge -- the sort of thing you and your realtor could (and perhaps should) have discovered as part of your research.

Keep in mind that winning a fraud claim requires (among other things) proof that the other side intentionally made a false statement to you. This requirement can be met by showing a failure to make a disclosure required by law if the defendant knew of the fact which was concealed, but you would need to show that the law requires such disclosure.

Sellers are required to make disclosures about their own property because they are usually the only ones with access to the information, but the information about the hog farm was available to the general public. It makes sense for the law to require them to give you relevant information you couldn't get elsewhere, but it doesn't make sense to require them to save you the bother of researching the neighborhood to see if it will or won't be the kind of place you want to call home.

Also, a rule which limits the seller's duty to disclosure of facts about the condition of the property itself is easy to interpret and enforce. But how would you write a law requiring disclosure of something happening a mile away? Many things closer than a mile will not affect the buyer at all, while some things much further away will. And, of course, lawmakers who try to write a generally applicable rule wouldn't necessarily choose one mile as the appropriate range -- it just happens to be the relevant distance in your situation.

Issues like this are why buyers normally hire real estate agents to represent their interests. If you had a qualified realtor who didn't tell you about the hog farm being developed down the road, then you might have a negligence claim against him or her (assuming that (1) Iowa realtors are required to check for such things; (2) the kind of research they are expected to do would have revealed the planned farm and (3) your realtor failed to conduct proper research). If you didn't hire a realtor, well, then you don't get to complain about not having the benefits a realtor would have brought to the transaction, and you certainly don't get to sue the seller because you didn't learn everything a professional realtor would have learned.

Re: fraud

Mr. Hoffman,

This is not a question that any lawyer should answer without sitting down and doing a complete interview. Then the lawyer will have to do research on the finer points of the legal issues. Who represented your family in the purchase? Was there a realtor involved? You may have a claim against the realtor for professional negligence, misrepresentation, or breach of contract, etc. You need a lawyer this is not going to be good.

Steve Lombardi