Found out Seller lied on Disclosure statement month after settlem

[Jordan B.]

Long story short I purchased a "flipped" home and now finding out the previous owner never obtained a permit for any of the work.

This was my first home purchase and I missed a lot of the red flags I am now seeing. The sellers disclosure stated that they only performed cosmetic renovations and repairs to the house. Therefor, no permits were obtained for any of the work.

Now, after living in the house for about 3 weeks we had a major leak in the upstairs bathroom that came through the living room ceiling. Once the plumbers came out they noticed all new plumbing in the bathroom and a bath tub drain/vent pipe that was disconnected. After some more observations the plumber stated that all the work looked very shady and few things were not up to code. I told him that I was told repairs were only cosmetic and no permits were taken out on the property. He told me to take pictures of everything and to contact my agent immediately.

So here I am with un-permitted work performed in my house and a wet ceiling and damaged furniture.

Am I screwed here or can I go after the seller?

I paid a pretty penny for this home and now I cant even lie my head down at night without worrying what MAY or MAY not happen in this house. I certainly don't feel as safe in it and I WOULD NOT have purchased this property if I had known that work was performed without a permit.

Any insight or help would be appreciated.

[Russell Brazil]

@Jordan B. It would be almost impossible to prove the flipper is the one who did the shoddy plumbing. If you approach them, they will likely say just what the disclosures say, that they only did cosmetic work, so it must have been done by whoever they purchased the home from.

There is two very important lessons we can learn from this as a community though. #1) disclosures are essentially worthless. #2) You really need to be careful when purchasing a flipped property.