Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Iowa

Re: leaky storm windows

Sorry to be the one to give you bad news, but you might have a problem. The primary function of a window is to keep the elements outside the house. These particular windows do not sound to be fulfilling that basic function very well. Basically, your question seems to imply that you told them there was a problem with the windows, not once, but twice, and in the disclosure form you completed, you said there was no problem. That alone is not going to look very good to the judge or jury.

The best approach would have been to disclose completely any problem and explain it. If the problem was significant enough to tell them twice, I don't really understand why it wasn't important enough to check yes on your disclosure. When I have clients complete disclosures, I make sure they understand that they must disclose EVERY defect. As far as the inspector's report, it sounds like unless he happened to be there when it was raining, he would not know there was a problem.

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