House demolished within days of purchasing! Who’s responsible?

[Kiah Davis]

Happy Wednesday! I'm a new investor in Atlanta. I purchased a home about a year ago. Within 3 days of me closing on the home the house was demolished by the city due to a known (but not disclosed) title issue. I went through the title claim process and was awarded a settlement however I didn't receive any compensation for my attorney fees, the incremental holding cost required while claim process was in progress and fees involved with new construction as opposed to a flip. Additionally through peeling back the onion I found out that the person who did the title search/owned closing office knew the demolition had been ordered and was trying to push the deal thru in hopes she could outpace it. To add to the drama she was a previous owner of the home via a LLC. I've gotten mixed reviews on the civil/criminal implications involved with this deal gone wrong as well as who professionally is responsible. I would like to litigate to try to recoop some of my damages but don't want to do so in vain. Any one have any experience/guidance they can share? Am I as the buyer able to sue the owner of closing company/person who conducted title search due to fraud/negligence or do I only have a breach of warranty case against the previous seller (who is a master of setting up and dissolving LLCs to conduct similar high risk deals - unknown when transaction began)?

[Tom Gimer]

Originally posted by @Kiah Davis:

@Tom Gimer - correct on the title policy so I know there’s nothing else that I can recover there. 

In the warranty deed that was executed the seller swore to defend my right and title to the Property and all improvements thereon against all others. No verbiage says there’s anything about me accepting a violation

I'm not referring to the deed... pull the sales contract and report back on what it says regarding property condition. If there is a warning, statement or disclaimer regarding purchaser conducting its own due diligence or similar then the property could easily have been sold subject to existing problems.