Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Wisconsin

Realitor Ethics? Or Legal Issue?

I bought a house (Closed Sept 1st) with my now husband. It was our first house and we signed up with the realitor/agency that we thought was listing the house. Come to find out after the home inspection that the agent we were working with works directly for the broker that owns the house. His 2nd Wife of a different last name was the listing agent so we were not able to connection of the two looking at the Real Estate Tax Info. They made us sign that we knew they were related parties after we signed off on the home inspection. We signed becuase we didn't know what else to do (she listed the condo we were selling already). As part of the home inspection, we had them put in a spring damper into the chimney. It was the only receipt our buyer's agent didn't obtain for us. We required that they had it put in by a contractor. We were told that it was all done and by a contractor. I didn't not follow up everything behind our buyer's agent becuase we trusted her. We bought the house and now found out that the chimney is falling apart and we are looking at 5,000 - 6,000 to fix it. We requested that they give us a copy of the invoice from the home inspection to contact the chimney contractor, but have not received any information yet.


Asked on 8/01/08, 12:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Sean Sweeney Tosa Law Office

Re: Realitor Ethics? Or Legal Issue?

To clear up a couple of things I will explain a little bit about Realtors. You refer to her as your "buyer's agent" but unless you actually signed a "buyer Agency" agreement with her, she is actually a sub-agent of the seller and her fiduciary duty is to the seller.

That being said, if the amended contract called for the work to be done by a contractor, then it needed to be done by a contractor. My advice would probably be to retain an attorney to send a letter to the seller indicating that the problem needs to be taken care of, by them through the contractor, with a deadline with a lawsuit to follow.

If they are unresponsive either represent yourself, or retain a lawyer to represent you in Small Claims Court and file suit against the Seller. They can respond and bring in the contractor if they so choose, and now you have everyone at the bargaining table so that hopefully the contractor will simply agree to repair the work and the matter will be dropped.

If a contractor never was hired, then the seller has the option of paying for one now, thus settling the suit or else getting a judgment against them and having to pay for the contractor, court costs, and some attorney's fees.

Good luck, that is truly an unfortunate situation and it always makes my blood boil a little when I hear about Realtors engaging in blatant conflict of interest cases.

Thanks,

Sean M. Sweeney

Tosa Law office

933 N. Mayfair Rd. Ste 107

Wauwatosa, WI 53226

http://www.TosaLawOffice.com

(My contact info has changed to the above)

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Answered on 8/01/08, 12:29 pm


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