Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania
Home Seller and Township mandated inspections
I'll try to keep this succinct and to the point. We have lived in a home in Warminster Township, Bucks County Pennsuylvania for a little over 3 years. I'm being relocated due to work and the house has sold. Now that the house is sold, my township mandates several inspections be done before a Use and Occupancy permit is issued.
Problem #1 is the fact that Warminster Township only allows one subcontractor of their choosing to do these inspections. I have no say in who does them.
Problem #2 is the fact that we have only lived in this house for 3 years and after the inspections were done we have a few expensive fixes. Fix #1 is the sidewalk in front of our house. We want to know who is legally responsible for a failure to fix the sidewalk before we moved in three years ago.
The second fix is our driveway. It is completely decimated, but again, it was like that when we moved in.
I think that it is highly unfair that the onnus is on us to pay over $2500 to fix what should have been fixed before we moved in if the inspectors had done their job properly. Our township provides no answers other than ''different inspectors have different criteria''
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Home Seller and Township mandated inspections
A couple of questions first: Is this the house you are moving into or the house you are moving out of? Can you get a copy of the inspection report from the previous inspection? What are the hard criteria against which the inspector grades?
It sounds like this is the house you are selling. If that is the case then you don't have a problem unless there is a contingency in your contract. The problem should rest with the purchasor of the property.
The previous inspection report should detail the condition of the property prior to your move in. This is your baseline. Though it is not unreasonable that conditions deteriorated sufficiently in three years.
And most importantly the inspector cannot have vague criteria against which he may or may not pass a home. This creates an impermissible condition where discretion is passed to an unreliable source. A law in order to be valid must give the regulated parties a benchmark against which they will be graded. Like speeding, you travel too fast you get a ticket. If the weather is bad and you have an accident then you may get a ticket for too fast for conditions, but generally too fast for conditions tickets are not issued. The phrase you want to latch onto is ambiguity.
You need to speak with a lawyer who handles property matters (real estate) in your locality. S/he may be able to better help you. Call the county bar association and they can refer you to a qualified attorney.
Good luck and regards,
Roger Traversa
email: [email protected]
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