Home buyers must check for mold

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Home buyers must check for mold

Inspecting a house before purchasing helps avoid an increasingly

common

nightmare.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/realestate/0505/03/E06-164492.htm

By M. Grieco

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Shortly after moving into your dream home, you discover a serious

water

leakage problem and visible mold, conditions that were not disclosed

prior

to the sale and that an inspection didn't reveal.

A mold-testing company determines the house is heavily contaminated

with

allergic molds and it will cost more than $60,000 to fix the water

problem

and remediate the mold. It is recommended your family, which is

having

allergic reactions, move out until the problem is resolved. Your

real estate

agent and the seller are unwilling to help. What do you do?

This scenario is becoming more common across the country. Many

homebuyers, who believed they took all the right precautionary

steps, are

still shocked when mold is discovered in their dream home and they

have

little legal recourse.

In Michigan, the law of " caveat emptor " applies to a used home

purchased

" as is, " meaning the seller is not liable for any harm due to

defects at the

time of the sale, unless the seller made fraudulent

misrepresentations before

the contract was signed. Even so, fraud claims are not covered by

the

seller's homeowners insurance, so purchasers may be limited in how

much

money they can actually collect to compensate for out-of-pocket

expenses.

Home inspectors may or may not be liable for failure to point out

the

potential for a mold problem because they are limited in what they

can

inspect. They cannot do any destructive testing, such as lifting

carpeting or

removing paneling, and they typically do not move furniture or other

items

that can conceal hidden conditions such as water damage or mold.

Home

inspection contracts typically limit the inspector's liability to

the price of

the home inspection.

To avoid this nightmare, the following steps are recommended:

• Negotiate a longer inspection period in the purchase agreement to

have

more than one inspection. The more inspections the better.

• Ask about the inspector's experience investigating for moisture

and mold

problems. Ask that a moisture meter be used to check for water

behind

walls in basements, bathrooms or wherever there is evidence of a

leak.

• Consider testing by a certified mold inspector if there is even a

hint of a

prior moisture problem. This could be money well spent if it saves

you

from buying a nightmare.

• Do not rely upon the seller's disclosure statement. Ask the seller

specific

questions in the presence of your real estate agent about water

intrusion,

moisture and mold.

• Do not sign an arbitration clause in the purchase agreement, which

is

never for the benefit of the purchaser. It costs more to file for

arbitration

than it does to sue, and arbitration costs are usually not

recoverable. Once

you sign the closing documents, disputes are limited to failure to

disclose

existing conditions.

• Take photographs of the house during the walk-through visit for

comparison to any later evidence of water or mold contamination if

you

need to prove fraud.

• Ask neighbors what they know about the sellers, the neighborhood

and if

they know of any water or other problems with the house. Neighbors

may

have seen wet carpeting on the curb before trash day.

M. Grieco is a lawyer and shareholder at Sommers Schwartz,

a

Southfield law firm.