Previous owner didn’t disclose basement flooding

Previous owner didn’t disclose basement flooding

Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2019 · 6 posts · 2 votes

I recently purchased a property “closing date dec 16th 2020” and the seller didn’t mention anything about the basement flooding, in fact I remember him saying in one of the showings “the basement has never flooded” but that is definitely not the case.

Every time it rains water begins to pool up in the crawl space, it comes in from multiple different locations and all drains to where an old sump pump used to be. The sump pump was broken and the drain pipe inside of the basin where the water pools up is clogged. In some of my previous posts you can see that I’ve been dealing with mold in the basement because of all the moisture but I can’t take care of the mold until the flooding stops.

I want to pursue legal action against the seller for not disclosing the flooding in the basement but I wanted to get some pointers on how I should approach this. There’s no way the sellers didn’t know about the flooding because when the water gets high enough it starts spilling over the foundation wall and you can see it, there was also someone living in the basement as well so if they didn’t see it they could hear it.

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  • Rental Property Investor · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2020 · 58 posts · 46 votes
    5y

    Odd are you are out of luck and would spend more time and $ trying to win a lawsuit, then snaking the pipe and installing a new sump pump.  You can buy a hand crank snake for $30 and a new sump for $100-$200 at Home Depot.  Or hire a handyman for $500 to take care of it for you.

    1) You probably purchased the property "as is", and anything that happened or was 'discovered' post close is on your dime. I closed on a 24 unit apartment in Nov, and post close found a handful of small issues like this (leaky fridge, missing sheetrock in closet, etc.) that I just had to eat.

    2) Did you get the property professionally inspected prior to closing?  A reputable inspector should have caught this.

    3) Advice is to fix it yourself, and assume that no seller is going to disclose 'everything' bad they know about - Its really on the buyer to catch it in diligence/inspection period and renegotiate the price. You would lose in court.  The seller just has to say they didn't know there was any flooding, or that the sump was working up until close, and you won't be able to prove them incorrect. 

  • Russell BrazilBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Agent · Washington, D.C. · Member since 2012 · 17k+ posts · 30k+ votes
    5y

    I mean, it sounds like it could just be a broken sump pump. Why not just go buy a new sump pump?

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