Legal Question about previous owners of a duplex I bought

[Brandon Giarusso]

I purchased a duplex that I have lived in for a couple of years. It passed all inspections when I bought it, however I quickly realized there were many problems hidden behind the walls. I did some digging and found out the the previous owners had renovated the entire place, without pulling a single permit or having a single inspection done. I will try and keep it concise on what was wrong just to give an idea; the first winter all my pipes froze. When I opened the wall up I found that the insulation was on the wrong side of the pipes, trapping the pipes against the cold outside wall. When i did that I saw that the dryer vent was smashed into the wall, almost flat to fit. It was full of lint, not a matter of if, but when that would have started a fire. That was just the tip of the iceberg, I've had electrical, plumbing, and many more problems with the house. Needless to say it wouldn't have passed insulation, framing, electrical, or plumbing inspections had they been done. Not to mention there were walls removed without an engineer signing off. Not only was it illegal, but its dangerous to me and my renters. My question is do I have any legal ground to stand on to go after the previous owners? I am about to sell this property, and I have spent a lot of money and time fixing what I have found and can, but do I have to disclose this even though I didn't renovate it?

Lesson learned in all of this is if you buy a renovated property, to double check the permits pulled on the property. 

[Thomas S.]

Old owner has no legal obligations. Responsibility passed to you at time of sale.