Property Disclosure Debacle

[Account Closed]

If you want to keep it short, skip to the last paragraph where I ask a question, otherwise read on :)

I put in an offer over a month ago on a house that is in pretty rough shape. Holes in walls, flooring torn up, one bathroom missing fixtures, other bathroom fixtures smashed, missing a window, roof in bad shape (can see sheathing along eaves in spots), hole in garage roof, ext. (you get the picture)

Anyway, I offered $18,500 if seller would finance and seller verbally accepted. However, the realtor had a few "typos" on the offer paperwork which concerned me (one of which was an extra $100,000 on the asking price) but he said just sign and return and he'll fix it later(he didn't want to fix it and resend it). So instead I ran it through my attorney and he said he can fix it before I sign, but he had concerns about the property disclosure.

According to the property disclosure there was absolutely nothing wrong with the property. They had just ran a line through the "no" column and signed. Now, this didn't concern me because I had looked at the property and was planning to have an inspection anyway, but my attorney insisted seller redo disclosure paper properly since obviously there are several things wrong with the house which is in direct contrast with what the disclosure states.

I brought this up to the realtor and he got very upset about it. Told me "that's the way I always do disclosures and that it was a rental house and she's never been there so she (seller) couldn't possibly know the condition". Ok, so obviously it was the realtor and not the seller who filled out the disclosure form. But in the interest of getting on with it and closing the deal I asked him if he could please just have the seller redo the disclosure form to appease my attorney so we could get on with the purchase. He said ok.

Fast forward over a month. I've been getting "tomorrow or the next day you'll have it" every time I reach him. Finally I sent him an email stating I am no longer interested due to the excessive wait. He responded that sellers attorney already had it and he thought I got a copy to. That was a lie. AFTER he responded to me he sent it over to sellers attorney, who forwarded it to my attorney. So, it was finally done and we can get on with it, or so I thought. Instead of a line down the "no" column, each individual item has "no" individually checkmarked. So absolutely nothing is different. Obviously this realtor was offended and is now just being an a$$ with no intention of getting it filled out correctly.

So, after all this I was wondering everybody's opinion on whether getting the property disclosure filled out correctly really does matter. My attorney thinks so, but obviously the realtor does not. Because of this realtors actions (and lack of) I am highly doubtful I'm going through with this deal, but I'm curious as to your opinions so I know for future deals. Is it important to have a Property disclosure filled out or isn't it? Thanks everyone (and sorry for the long post )