Seller lied during negotiation - Michigan

[Dan Stewart]

Hey Guys,

After researching real estate for a few years now I finally I bought my first home. Its going to work great because I am going to use it as a vacation rental while I work away from home and use it the rest of the year. I believe its in a really good area to vacation since I visit here for fun. If all does well, I will make it a year around vacation rental since it’s in a solid area to vacation.

Unfortunately I am having issues with the last homeowner. Long story short, in the inspection period, I noticed that the the bed was against the wall during the pictures in the master bedroom for the internet. When I showed up the bed had been moved in front of the glass door wall. The inspectors were not allowed to move the bed. So I asked my real estate agent to ask the selling party why the bed was moved and if there was anything wrong with the glass door wall. They said the door worked perfectly fine.

When we wrote up the deal, we put 500 dollars into escrow in case there was issues between closing and when I moved in. We did it over the phone since I lived 4 hours away from the house.

After I moved in, I discovered that I was lied to about the door. The door is splitting at the bottom and also bulging. The door is caving into the seal and needs a ton of force to open. The door is not useable and needs to be replaced. This the reason why they put the bed in front of the glass door wall. After talking to contractors and my dad, who is also a contractor, we came up that it would cost between 750 and 900 dollars to replace. There was already around 4500 dollars worth of work. I was not expecting another grand. 

I also found my fence collapsing into the neighbors yard, a burnt couch and they decided to use my property as a trash pit between the last time I seen the property and when I moved in.

So after months of back and fourth between my agent, I finally got to talk to the sellers broker. He basically told me I was out of luck on the door wall because we did not ask the last home owners to move the bed. It didn’t matter that the seller lied to me about the door wall being broke. He told me I could take it to court if I would like but I would probably loose.

Does anyone know if this is true about the fact the last home owner hid evidence that the door was broken and lied to me that is worked fine? I was thinking I could get the 500 bucks to fix it since she did not disclose the truth about the door being broken.

Also, there was a chair attached to a structure attached to two trees. They took the chair but left me the structure between the two trees. Also, there was a structure in the back yard on a deck. Again, they took the structure but left me the deck in a wierd place.. I would have thought there were part of the house. Anyone know the rules on that??

Any help on these issues would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Jerry W.]

You need to read the sale documents.  Does it say you are taking as is where is?  There is usually a clause that says you are not relying on any oral representations of seller.  You need to be firm when you buy a house and have it inspected.  They either comply with the inspection or you walk.  You don't get to go around and find problems then ask to have the seller pay for them after the sale, it must be before.  Learn your lesson and move one.  Be glad this lesson only cost you the price of a door.