How do you handle liars?

[David T.]

Drawing from recent media commentary where VP Joe Biden was derided across some media for answering questions truthfully, telling lies seems to have become an accepted way of life.

In October four of our purchase deals fell because the sellers and/or their agents had deliberately provided incorrect information about the properties and these lies only became exposed in the course of diligence, very close or right on top of the closings.

The unfortunate consequence of these misrepresentations for us was lost time and resources which is always costly. It's a reasonable expectation that this is just another cost of doing business and we hit a bad run.

After a direct challenge to their misinformation two of these people with whom we had completed previous deals apologized for "their mis-communication" (which phraseology seems to be a cop out for telling lies these days).

The only question I have about this is; how would you handle somebody who has lied to you in a deal?