Flipper · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2015 · 17 posts · 0 votes
Hi, Everyone,
I am a buyer of one residential townhouse. My buyer's agent told that the property was used to be in a living trust and then its heir got the property. The heir hasn't live in the property before, they didn't provide any seller disclosure.
I checked the relevant florida law and as per my understanding, the seller is required to provide the seller disclosure.
Sellers disclosure is not required but not because of the way it was titled. If the seller has not lived in the property they are not required to disclose. If in a trust, but the trustee lived in the property they would be required to disclose. To protect themselves, they should provide a disclosure and if they have no knowledge of any issues they should state so in the disclosure.
I can't speak for Florida, but when we purchased our first SFH in New Mexico, the seller in the deal had inherited the property through an estate, but had never lived in it. When we received the disclosure, it was full of "Seller Doesn't Know" and similar responses to the standard questions regarding the roof, exterior, plumbing, HVAC, etc.
I wouldn't be surprised if the seller in your case is protected from providing information they may or may not know having never lived in the property. Clauses/rules like these protect sellers from providing incomplete or incorrect information about the property.
It reall doesn't matter. As per FL law, the seller simply has to inform you of any defect not visible in the property. If they don't know of one, they don't have to "disclose" anything.