I bought a house under special warranty in Pittsburgh,PA ,May 2017. Seller never disclose water problem in basement in their property disclosure.  

The house was rented on August 2017. Tenants places a lot of their stuffs in the basement which covered the whole basement floor. Tenants never went down to basement to check  stuffs since then. Around March 2018, tenant complained about basement flood. The flood came from a corner of the foundation. 

contractors came inside for inspecting the water damage. They think the water leakage started before I bought the house. 

I was left to pay $11k to water proof external wall and installing French drain. 

#1 : Do I have right to ask seller for covering any cost under special warranty deed? 

#2: For $11k , does it worth the trouble to ask attorney to pursue it legally?  

#3: What will you do in this situation? 

I appreciate very much for your opinions! Thank you! :)

Cheng 

This is eerily similar to what I'm going through now! I hope someone has some good advice for you. I just bought a house a month ago that I'm living in and renting out rooms to hack it.  I noticed the carpet in one corner was wet and stayed that way even after having the fan on it for awhile. I pulled up the carpet and look and behold: the floor underneath was perpetually damp from a leak. I'm currently looking into installing a French drain but the leak isn't so terrible right now so I'm going to try to do it myself. I'm still curious if this is something I should have been warned about before buying.

The “type of deed” has No effect on property condition.....it is purely a term referring any warranty regarding solely the condition of title.
I’m guessing you rec’d a Special Warranty Deed on an REO purchase? If so, banks never make disclosures as they did not ever occupy or manage the property in a day to day basis.
A six month delay or so in finding a water intrusion problem wouldn’t point to a seller knowing about it either.

There are 2 types of basements , ones that have flooded , and ones that will flood in the future .  

I have 4 houses with basements , NONE are finished . My lease warns the tenants that the basements could possibly flood in the wet season . Do not store anything on the floor .

Originally posted by @Wayne Brooks :

The “type of deed” has No effect on property condition.....it is purely a term referring any warranty regarding solely the condition of title.
I'm guessing you rec'd a Special Warranty Deed on an REO purchase? If so, banks never make disclosures as they did not ever occupy or manage the property in a day to day basis.
A six month delay or so in finding a water intrusion problem wouldn’t point to a seller knowing about it either.

 Hi Wayne , 

The house is not a REO, but sold by owner. What will you do in this case? Thanks!