All Forum Posts by: Carlos Enriquez

I'm out of state so I couldn't walk the place.  Hence my trust of the inspector.  The house is in Seattle, and I'm in California.

The seller did a fsbo, not I.  I had a realtor, but couldn't force the seller to get one since they were adamant about that.

My realtor used the standard purchase agreement for WA.

Anyway, I'm just asking, because, whenever I sell a property, I'm always told to disclose everything, even if I think it's insignificant, because later it can bite me in the ***.

I am going to pursue this as far as I can without getting into a deep financial mess.  Perhaps, once the sellers are notified of this, they MAY decide to cover some of it and I would be satisfied with that.   After all, the issues that were discovered were fixed by the sellers before closing, so they may still be reasonable, especially if I gently imply about going to court.

Uh, this is in Seattle as stated in  my original post.

That's right,  I expect a good inspection if I pay for it.  He offered it (he admitted missing it), and I accepted.  Thanks for your opinion, but he owed me, he knew it, and I'm glad he offered instead of my having to ask him for it.

This was so out in the open and the inspector totally missed it.  A good inspector with experience would know how and what to inspect.  But let's say that some people don't step on literally every square foot of flooring, that's fine, but I would not want to recommend such an inspector to my friends.  However, the repaired water heater and damaged drywall in the garage would warn a good inspector to double check behind and under the wall.  He did not and therefore he was negligent.  I want to go after the sellers who knew about this and covered it up with new floor.  I'll know after some estimates what the cost will be, but if I prevail, it will be no cost to me if under $5k in small claims.

So, my question was, anyway, has anyone won a small claims suit for this type of thing?

I'm really not interested in different philosophies about inspectors and their fees.  I got the fee back, and now want to recover the cost of repairing this floor.  This is a business as many people in BP agree on, and the issue is money and principle.

Yes they had a disclosure and disclosed a few things with the property, but did not disclose this very crucial defect.

I recently bought a sfr in Seattle, closed December 22, 2015.  The inspector that charged me $400 for the inspection totally missed a one foot diameter area in the dining room along the garage side wall that when stepped on, sinks in about 3-4".

The floor had been recently upgraded to that floating laminate material.  The sellers did not disclose any defect, but it's obvious that they would have known about it, but covered it up with the new floor.

This apparently occurred from a water heater leak directly behind the dining room wall in the garage.  They had replaced the water heater but did not repair the drywall that had been affected, nor the wood floor under the common wall between the garage and dining room.  The inspector noted the drywall, but apparently did not think to go into the dining room on the other side to see if there was damage done to the floor!

We found this after we took possession of the house and immediately notified my realtor and the inspector.  The inspector returned for a look and told me that all he could do was  refund my inspection fee if I was not satisfied.  Needless to say I got my money back, but now I have to deal with estimates and repair, and I'm an out of state owner at this point.  This house was built in 1967, so instead of subfloor, the floor is actually 2 x 6 x 20 long planks.

Unfortunately, the house sold as "for sale by owner", so they didn't have a realtor, per say. Only enough of one to list their house on MLS. I'm not sure what to do.

My question is, has anyone prevailed by taking sellers to small claims court after getting repairs done, due to non-disclosure of a defect?

She admitted it was an eviction on her, not the family.  Perhaps this was before she settled down with her current husband who has a good job.  Check out his history and decide from there.

If you're asking about floor plans, check out the duplexes offered in MLS, and you'll see not only the photos of the interiors but they should also include a floor plan as well.

When I was looking for one, I saw several of those.  You can search different cities if duplexes are lacking in your area.

Why would the tenant wait until after closing to report?  Was he told to by someone?

Ask them.  There was a clause in my purchase contract that said that seller is responsible for any existing problem after closing if found to have been active before closing.  That's why they did a good final walk through to avoid something like this.

A final would give the tenant ample opportunity to report.

Doesn't a check become invalid and non cashable after a certain amount of time anyway?  I would let it lapse.

Let his insurance company handle it.  Don't give him any info.  For all you know, he may have had that dent a while and that branch could have landed near by, and he got a great idea in his mind!