Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Sued for damages 4 years after sale of home

Unless you have insurance that will cover a defense, you must hire a lawyer to represent your interest. The Buyers seem to have a weak case and are using the legal process to get parties to contibute to a settlement rather that have to defend a legal action. Remember there is a legal action pending that can not be ignored. If you ignore it you will lose by default. Ther merit of the Buyer's case is not relevant. YOu must defend or possibly negotiate a settlement rather than pay attorney fees. Gerald Hershenson Esq.

Re: Sued for damages 4 years after sale of home

The following are general comments, not legal advice, as you have not retained me to assist you, and I am not familar with all the necessary facts that relate to your situation.

They have to prove you knew or should have known there was a defect... of course, first they have to prove there WAS a defect. The problem could have been because of a failure to maintain, and not a design or installation problem.

There are a LOT of possibly relavent questions and issues here, such as "how old WAS the house and how old was the stucco?"

In a nutshell, they can file suit. Their problem is they have a weak suit, with all sorts of possible problems, but is may still cost you a few thousand to defend yourself. I suggest the following:

Contact the other defendants & see what they want to do, they may intend to file a Summary Judgment motion, which you can "join" by sending a letter to the court, to try to get out cheaply.

The inspection company has the most at risk.

You may decide to throw a couple thousand $$$ at the problem, not because you have any liability, but because it will end the problem, and from a purely business perspective, it may end up costing less than hiring an attorney.

IF you chose to fight, YOU MUST ANSWER IMMEDIATELY, "denying all allegations and leaving plaintiffs to their proofs". At the same time, You can file a SJ motion yourself, simply asking the court to dismiss you because the plaintiffs can not prove that 1) there is actually any defect when you owned the home, or that the claimed "problem" wa not a result of improper maintaince or something they did or somethign that occured after your ownership of the home, and 2) even if they could prove there was a defect while you owned the home, the sale was an arms length transaction, where 'caveat emptor' applies, and they had their own inspection company and the opportunity to have an engineer inspect the proeprty, and even if the court does not agree with that arguement, the plaintiffs would still have to prove you knew there was a defect, but they can not do so, because you never had any leakage problems, so you could NOT have known if there was a defect. Unless there were disclosures that you made prior to the sale, that you signed, again, where there was an arms length transaction, where 'caveat emptor' applies, and they had their own inspections performed.

You should also ask for any costs of defendaing yourself from the plaintiffs because they do not have a good faith basis for naming you and asserting the claims that they are asserting, and they are now on notice of your assertion of frivilous claims.

If that does not work, you will most likely need to hire yourself an attorney.

I hope these general comments have been helpful, and educational, but they are not legal advice, and you can not rely upon them.