Sorry to hear that Alexandra. It's time to "lawyer up".
Alexandra did you not get an inspection on the retail property before closing?? It sounds like " and I may be wrong " that you trusted the sellers word and did not have an inspection completed.
Did you pay all cash for this property or use finance?
If finance a phase one survey is generally ordered along with an appraisal.
I hope you are not into this property for a lot of money.
It's very, very important for everyone to at least use an attorney that is familiar with commercial real estate and well versed in it. One of my commercial lenders was telling me the other day about a buyer bought a property with a general practice attorney as his counsel. The GP attorney said yes looks like a valid lease. The buyer closed and there was a clause about if the building was destroyed or damages because of weather the owner was responsible for moving this giant business to another location and rebuilding the current building until ready for occupancy again. This one provision put the owner on the hook for millions of dollars in costs and greatly reduced the value of the property for resale he thought he was getting.
My loan guy wasn't involved with that this buyer had just called him looking to do something with his existing loan. So there are GP attorneys where they might do some real estate, probate, personal injury, etc. and are all over the place. They can sometimes miss little things that turn into huge issues for a buyers or a seller.
There are also real estate attorneys full time that mainly deal with residential and are not well versed in commercial contracts or leases.
Alexandra make sure your attorney is well versed in real estate litigation.
If anyone is thinking of buying a property like this please find a quality commercial broker/agent who specializes in this niche or at the least get competent legal counsel before closing to review and checklist items for due diligence.
No legal advice.
