Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland
Failure to Disclose a Major Renovation Prior to Selling a House
My husband and I purchased a single family home last April. The person we purchased the house from only owned it for 3 months before they put the house on the market (12/05 - 2/06), claiming she did not like the cold Mid Atlantic weather. She never actually moved into the house. Given the short amount of time since the previous home inspection and the fact that she never moved into the house, my husband and I opted out of having a home inspection. Upon moving into our house, we determined that the master bathroom had been totally renovated and that a jacuzzi tub had been installed. This renovation had not been disclosed to us prior to the sale of the house or else we would have gotten a home inspection.
In October 06 we had our first leak and the plumber came out to find that the individual who put the shower in our bathroom had not soddered the pipe correctly. Then in January 07, we noticed another leak and had a different plumber come out to look at the problem. Upon taking down the drywall he noticed that most of the plumbing was done incorrectly and that they did not even reinforce the area where the jacuzzi tub was nor did they have an acce
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Failure to Disclose a Major Renovation Prior to Selling a House
I generally agree with the answer above, with one major exception. I believe that: (1) If you can successfully
demonstrate (from the prior home inspection perhaps) that the shoddy work was performed while the person who sold you the house owned it; and (2) The work was performed by an unlicensed home improvement contractor; (3) a fact finder determines that failing to perform the necessary diligence in hiring a licensed contractor is itself actual knowledge of a latent defect, then you have a chance of recovery (or at least a good stick to wave at the seller to get her to pay for repairs!
Re: Failure to Disclose a Major Renovation Prior to Selling a House
Since you didn't ask a specific question, I'll guess that what you want to know is what rights you have against the seller.
The law says that the seller must disclose known defects that could not ordinarily be discovered by the buyer before transfer of title. These are termed "latent defects". Since the seller never occupied the property, you would be hard pressed to prove that she knew of the problems, unless her home inspector discovered them. However, that is unlikely, since these types of inspections wouldn't involve removing drywall or any other kind of intrusive activity. I assume you were given a copy of her report, and that's why you decided to forego your own inspection. Even if you had arranged for your own inspection, it's unlikely that your inspector would have discovered the problem. Also, it seems that you should have realized the status of the bathroom renovation when you initially toured the property, and could have inquired about it at that time. In summary, I think you would have a difficult time holding the seller responsible unless you could establish that she knew about the defective plumbing workmanship.
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