Can I call a lawyer for this?

Question

Hey Guys hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Last year I bought a Duplex in pompano beach Florida. It was completely remodeled by the previous owner(who is a flipper). I went through inspections and all everything came back okay. Title company etc. so 9 months later I get a knock on the door stating there are no permits for the fence, and most importantly the second efficiency. The home is still on record as a SFH. No permitted work was done and this is costing me 20-30k to fix.  The previous owner obviously knew, is there someone I can go after for this? And if so does anyone have a great lawyer?  Thanks!

Ke Nan Wang · Answer

A fence shouldn't cost that much. My average fence around a 5k sq ft property cost range from $5k-8k depend on the scope.

In real estate transaction, when you close, it's usually AS-IS unless you have hard evidence that the seller knowingly and purposefully hid information that has negative impact on the value of the property at the time of the sale. Also your legal fees can easily be the loss you are describing. So if you don't have hard evidence, I wouldn't waste the money and time. Just remember, only lawyers are the winner out of a legal battle. Even if you win and get paid 20-30k and your legal fee (best case scenario), how about the time lost and the attention and headache dealing with the case over the next 6 month to a year?

You can try to settle out of the court and see if the seller and realtor would like to settle on something. Worst case you get a NO. But it costed you little time and no legal fees.

David P. · Answer

Someone from the city came knocking? I feel like the fence happens all the time. Rarely are permits pulled just to put up a fence. I just did a rotted wooded fence to brick wall recently with my neighbor without one. In terms of the other unit...I feel like as a buyer you should have known or appraiser would of mentioned it too or realtor. It should say right there on the MLS what type of zoning the property is and if it was marketed as a SFH with possible ADU...you would of investigated if the ADU was done permitted. This happens all the time too. I just saw 2 open houses this weekend with same exact thing. The appraiser shouldnt of counted that extra SQFT in the final count and in the city building records it should of shown the original home SQFT without that permitted area. Both you should have notice when doing your due diligence.

Russell Brazil · Answer

Look at the real estate disclosure form you signed when you purchased. Section 6 part C of the Florida disclosure is the question on permits.

Ray Hage · Answer

Unfortunately, most likely you will be out of luck. I would speak with a lawyer and have all the evidence you can get that it was purposely mismarketed and misrepresented. If you don't have any evidence of this, you're better off forgetting about it. Just get it permitted and work with the city. Unfortunately this happens all the time. It just happened to me last month with a fence as well in West Palm Beach. I have owned the property for 2+ years and now I have to deal with this fence permitting issue.

Bob Stevens · Answer

Sorry confused, contractor to do what? Its already been done. What do you mean add another panel, You didn't notice there was only one panel for a MF ? Well, this was your error, bight the bullet. Use this as a learning experience, and move forward,

All the best

Richard Morrison · Answer

I'm a realtor who lives & works here in Pompano Beach. Sadly I see properties misrepresented a lot, just like this. There's actually a property that is currently for sale in the Old Pompano neighborhood, that just came to market that is being sold as a Duplex, but all county tax records show it to be a SFH.

It will be hard to prove that the previous owner knew there were violations. It's worth speaking with a lawyer. Then decide if this is worth pursuing.

It is up to the Buyer & the Buyer's Agent to do their due diligence on the property, and not take anything at the owner's word. There's honestly a chance that the owner had added the efficiency years ago, and just assumed that automatically made it a duplex. Or this could have been done with owner before that one.

In S. FL you have to double check all sorts of stuff. A lot of stuff was allowed to skate by in the 70s/80s since the cities didn't keep great permit records. I've seen & hear about stuff coming into the light of day all the time that completely messes with the closing of properties here.

Nick C. · Answer

Was it marketed to you as a duplex? I'm not a lawyer, but I've seen cases like this go both ways. A lot of it depends on the judge too.

The seller obviously knowing may not be enough. If you can prove the seller knew it was a SFH, and kept that information from you to get a higher price that caused damages (the 20-30k fix), you may have a good case.

You definitely want to speak to a RE lawyer before making any moves...

Can I call a lawyer for this?

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