Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New York

disclosure fraud

We bought a house in NY Upstate in May 2007. Our house was a 30 year old ranch and we were told that all houses including ours are connected to public sewage around this area. So the listing said ''Public sewage, public water'' and we believed it and paid the price. It it was not connected to public sewage we may have not bought this house. But last month the toilet downstairs flooded and we called a plumber and he could not fix it. So in order to identify the problem we checked the mainpipe which supposed to be connected to the public sewage line. But in our surprice there was a septic tank and it was full. All plumbing costed us more than 1000 dollar. Now we would like our money back and our sewage to be connected to the public line as it required by law. What should we do?

Thank you


Asked on 7/08/09, 6:37 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Markowitz Michael A. Markowitz, PC

Re: disclosure fraud

Usually a purchase of a home in NY is "as is". That is what most contracts state. I would assume that your contract states the same thing. However, if there is a specific representation in the contract that the house is connected to a sewer line, then you may have an action against the sellers for breach of contract.

To prove fraud is very difficult to do. You would have to demonstrate that the prior owner knew the house was not on a sewer line, specifically knew that you were purchasing the house because it was on a sewer line, and purposefully misrepresented that fact to induce you to purchase the house.

Mike.

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Answered on 7/09/09, 8:29 am


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