All Forum Posts by: Ashley Gamble

thank you everyone!  This is a big help.

In the SPD under "Building conditions" it asks if the sellers know of problems EVER EXISTING.  Under the "moisture and/or water" section the sellers stated "water in basement during heavy rainstorm of june 2023. repair completed, sealed wall, added downspouts" with no mention what-so-ever about moisture....nor other walls that were painted over to hide water damage.  Our inspector flagged improper grading on one side of the house and said that it needed to be remedied to avoid another flood incident as noted in SPD.

We asked about the dehumidifiers and sellers stated they only needed to be run during spring runoff, but these are the few items they left upon vacancy.  They were unplugged during inspection, but plugged in upon move-out and left with the 2 x 5gal catchment jugs (seemingly signaling intent to hide the problem before the sale).  We have not unplugged long enough to see if the humidity raises to the 60% threshold for mold, but it does raise to 50-55% after about 7 hours.  Would that be enough to assume sellers knew of the undisclosed moisture issue or is that still questionable proof that they knew of a problem needing disclosure?

Unfortunately there are no drains or sump pumps in the basement to empty the water into.

We recently bought a property that we have found out within the first few weeks of owning it that is has VERY SERIOUS drainage and humidity issues and lots of previous water damage that the sellers did not disclose. Massive dehumidifiers are filling with - we can't rent until a slew of multi thousand dollar repairs are completed.

We were told that the dehumidifiers the sellers had in the house were only used during the spring when snowmelt was very bad. When the sellers left, they left the dehumidifiers on and we are now removing over 2-4
gallons of water DAILY with them and it would be more if they didn't fill up then shut off. Smaller ones are filling up within 12 hours and the large unit they left with 2x 5 gallon water jugs to empty into AND a catchment below....because obviously the sellers knew that it fills over 5+ gallons in just TWO DAYS.

We have had to get a structuralengineer in who has noted other water damage throughout the basement (unfinished) that was hidden behind sellers boxes and personal items during our inspection. Our original inspector noted a drainage issue on the north side because of improper sloping. Sellers did not allow us to get professionals in to give estimates for a french drain before closing (yes, our red flag we should have walked away with), but agreed to lower closing price. We have also found our that the sellers lied on their disclosure of what they knew about the hail damage to roof. We
did get negotiate money from them to help with roof repair, but now know they were not honest on their disclosure.

Our inspector missed  code violations, HVAC issues, pipes that had been worked on and issues hidden that had occurred while sellers lived in the house, signs of drainage and water damage inside the house that had been painted over, completely blocked dryer vent...and we are finding more daily.

We have had the house looked at by a structural engineer and HVAC techs  that has told us we need thousands (likely tens of thousands) of dollars worth of repairs to make this property able to rent and come up to code for rental. We also can't have renters dealing with the humidifiers as it is a mold problem/foundation issue if it isn't taken care of.

We are taking pictures and videos of everything, we have multiple professionals that have documented everything (and told us to lawyer up) and have neighbors that we have already had agree to discuss their  drainage problems when we get a lawyer.

HELP!!
-Recommendations for Denver real estate lawyers? Especially if they specialize in seller disclosure problems.
-We have to move forward to help mitigate this problem b/c one owner lives 3 hours away and I live 30 min away and can't be at the house daily to empty dehumidifiers.
-What other information should we be gathering?
-What else can we do?!

Thank you for ANY advice!!!

We recently bought a property that we have found out within the first few weeks of owning it that is has VERY SERIOUS drainage and humidity issues and lots of previous water damage that the sellers did not disclose. Massive dehumidifiers are filling with at least 3-4 gallons of water daily - we can't rent until a slew of multi thousand dollar repairs are completed.

We were told that the dehumidifiers the sellers had in the house were only used during the spring when snowmelt was very bad.  When the sellers left, they left the dehumidifiers on and we are now removing over 2-4 gallons of water DAILY with them and it would be more if they didn't fill up then shut off.  Smaller ones are filling up within 12 hours and the large unit they left with 2x 5 gallon water jugs to empty into AND a catchment below....because obviously the sellers knew that it fills over 5+ gallons in just TWO DAYS.

We have had to get a structural engineer in who has noted other water damage throughout the basement (unfinished) that was hidden behind sellers boxes and personal items during our inspection.  Our original inspector noted a drainage issue on the north side because of improper sloping.  Sellers did not allow us to get professionals in to give estimates for a french drain before closing (yes, our red flag we should have walked away with), but agreed to lower closing price.  We have also found our that the sellers lied on their disclosure of what they knew about the hail damage to roof.  We did get negotiate money from them to help with roof repair, but now know they were not honest on their disclosure.

Our inspector missed code violations, HVAC issues, pipes that had been worked on and issues hidden that had occurred while sellers lived in the house, signs of drainage and water damage inside the house that had been painted over, completely blocked dryer vent...and we are finding more daily.

We have had the house looked at by a structural engineer and HVAC techs that has told us we need thousands (likely tens of thousands) of dollars worth of repairs to make this property able to rent and come up to code for rental.  We also can't have renters dealing with the humidifiers as it is a mold problem/foundation issue if it isn't taken care of.

We are taking pictures and videos of everything, we have multiple professionals that have documented everything (and told us to lawyer up) and have neighbors that we have already had agree to discuss their drainage problems when we get a lawyer.  

HELP!!
-Recommendations for Denver real estate lawyers?  Especially if they specialize in seller disclosure problems.
-We have to move forward to help mitigate this problem b/c one owner lives 3 hours away and I live 30 min away and can't be at the house daily to empty dehumidifiers.
-What other information should we be gathering?
-What else can we do?!

thank you for ANY advice!!!