Seller Did a Bad Job Fixing a Leaky Roof

[Faisal Farnas]

Hello Fellow BP'ers,

I am looking for some advice on a situation I am having with a single family house I recently purchased.

Here is the sequence of events:

1- Got an inspection on the house. The inspection report mentioned some ceiling water damage inside the laundry room due to a leak in the roof above. The report also says the leak is no longer active, but recommended asking the seller about it.

2- I added an addendum to the contract asking the seller to fix any leaks in the roof and repair some popping nails.

3 - The seller had somebody patch the roof with tar over the area that had water damage.

4- When that was done,  I got my 4-point inspection report saying that the roof had no problems. This was needed to get insurance.

5- I close on the house end of June and I purchase insurance with a $1000 deductible. 

6- Fast forward two weeks and a couple of rain storms later, and my contractors working inside the house are telling me that I have a leak in the roof and water is seeping inside the house into the laundry room.

7- I get an estimate on properly fixing the roof and it comes out to $1275. The roofer also tells me that the patch job done by the seller is laughable.

What are my options? Can I go back after the seller or the inspection company? Should I file an insurance claim? 

What would you do if you were in my situation?

Thanks,

Faisal

[Luc Boiron]

@Faisal Farnas

I honestly don't think you'll get that far with this with the seller. Once you have closed, it is not easy to get anything back or have them pay for anything. The laws are different here, I know that if a seller fraudulently misrepresents something, you can go after them, but poorly fixing something might be harder to argue.

If you were the seller, would you have spent $1275 to fix the roof, or would you have done the minimum for it to stop leaking?

As for the insurance, don't bother. Your insurance premiums will likely go up at renewal since you have made a claim. And you have a $1,000 deductible, so you'll barely get anything.

This is the reason I usually ask for a seller credit to fix things, rather than the seller fixing it themselves. I'd rather get half of the repair cost in a seller credit and pay the difference myself, but know that it will be fixed right.

Since you asked what I would do: If I felt like it, I could send a letter to the seller asking for them to pay half the cost to fix it, hoping that they do. They likely won't. I would just expect to fix it myself, and going forward, make sure that I either get a seller credit instead, or have the roof more properly inspected after repair and specify it in the contract (or specify that repair should be by a professional with warranty provided).