My buyer wanted to put an offer on a house that was not furnished with property disclosures. He was willing to accept a $300.00 check at closing because of this. After inspection the house was not to his 100% satisfaction because it was raining out the day of inspection and we found water in the basement. I put a clause in the contract to protect my buyer and he is not bound by the purchase contract any longer. But my buyer wants his inspection money of $315.00 paid for by the sellers or listing agent because they failed to disclose the water issue in the basement to myself and my client.

Can my buyer client get this money back? This happened before with another client where the sellers just lied on the property disclosure and we were not able to get the inspection money back without paying expensive lawyer fees making it not worth it.

In this case the sellers rather pay $300.00 at closing and not fill the disclosures out.

I have read articles where lawyers advised clients to not fill out the property disclosure and simply pay a $300.00 fine to avoid costly law suits if a problem that was never an issue arise after closing.

but is there any chance my buyer will get his inspection money back?

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Sincerely,
Joseph T. Martino
Realtor

CENTURY 21 Enterprise Realty, Inc.
80 Huntington Street
Shelton, CT 06484
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Office: 203.929.6311
Fax: 203.929.4498
Cell: 203.671.2384
Office Website: www.c21e.com
Myspace: myspace.com/JosephMartino
e-mail: joseph.martino@century21.com

Nort sure what the laws are in your state...

In CA, the buyer could sue in small claims court (no lawyers involved). In court they could argue that if the Seller had properly disclosed the leaky basement issue that they would have ended the escrow before they paid for the inspection.

If your state does not require the seller to disclose known defects then your buyer is out of luck, they pay for the inspection to find out if anything is wrong with the home and the inspection was actually worth the price they paid.

Imagine if they had not gotten the inspection and closed escrow, then next winter they had the basement flood???

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State laws do vary, but I know in Texas, they would be out. The seller didn't hire the inspector and the buyer wasn't forced to hire an inspector.

I can't imagine that NOT filling out the disclosure would only be a fine and no additional liability. In fact, it would open up TONS of other "non-disclosed" liabilities!

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