Property owner lied about having a basement

[M Edouard]

Hello BP,

I recently purchased a property in an area that has flood issues. When I bought the property I was told by the seller that there was no basement and the property never flooded. Based on this information I felt comfortable buying the property. However through doing renovations we discovered that there indeed was a basement. We found out that the previous owner filled the basement with dirt and anything else he could find because the basement use to flood. 

Through out the entire house buying process he told all of us there is no basement. 

This has caused structural issues to the property because the first floor apartment is sinking and I feel it is related to what he did to the basement. 

On all of the paperwork there is no mention of a basement he purposely sealed the basement and lied to everyone about the property flooding and the basement. The inspection report has no report of a basement because we did not know it existed.

Knowing what I know now, what can I do?

[Jay Hinrichs]

wow..  this one might be a cause for litigation.. Not sure if they will counter that a decent home inspection would have uncovered this so its your fault.