How to find out prior claims of a house

[Allen Yang]

Hi, 

We are located in the Great Boston area. Last week our offer on a house was accepted with inspection contingency. After inspection over the weekend, our inspector identified signs of water penetration on one inner wall of the basement connecting to the backward, which might be due to the gaps between cement walls/chimney bricks and the wooden siding. Today during insurance quote, one of the agents detected a claim of damages for over $100k two years ago and asked for clarification, which brought up more potential issues to our attention. Though the sellers promptly provided documents of the claim and repair contract upon our request, the law in Massachusetts does not require them to disclose all prior conditions if they choose not to. In this case, is there a way for us to investigate the full history of this house's insurance claims over the past 5 to 10 years? We are buying this due to the arrival of our new baby, so we will be at very tight budget after closing. If there is any potential risks about major work in near future, we might have to terminate the transaction in the next 2 days before the inspection contingency expires.

Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Allen