Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

: Condo - leaking roof

I assume that you are talking about the person who sold you the house.

If the seller has not complied, and depending on whether the seller is a business or an individual, at minimum you can seek a suit for the cost of the roof, and possibly any damages resulting from the failure to replace.

Should you need assistance, or have any questions, contact me.

Re: Condo - leaking roof

Unfortunately, this happens all the time. From your question, it doesn't appear you held back any money from the purchase price as leverage to ensure the roof work was actually performed (usually you would hold the value of the roof work back at closing, and agree to pay upon completion of the work). Was the roof work agreement made in writing, and/or acknowledged at the closing?

Assuming you have no applicable warranty, you can bring claims for breach of the promise to do the roof, as well as claims for misrepresentation, possibly even fraud if the facts show the seller simply promised to do the roof to induce you to buy the condo at a certain price, but never intended to do the work. Given the facts as you describe them, this is possible. The misrepresentation claims would be especially useful to you in case you have no written contract for the roof work. In other words, even if you fail to prove breach of contract, you could still succeed on negligent and/or intentional misrepresentation claims against the seller and recover the value difference b/w the condo as promised (new roof) and the condo value you received (leaky roof). You might also recover any out of pocket expenses as well.

If the seller is in the business of selling condos (or has sold at least a few units prior to yours), you would also have claims under the consumer protection statute which, if proven, would require the seller to reimburse your reasonable attorneys' fees, and possibly even pay you two times, or even three times, the amount actually due to you.

Depending on who the seller was, you may also have additional claims because the promise involved home improvement work (possibly triggering another extremely powerful statute you could use as major leverage).

I have handled several cases like this before and recently tried one in Superior Court. Let me know if I can help you out here. There are lots of tools available to you if you want to drop the hammer.