Re: small claims court-Debbie OT/LONG!

[Guest guest]

Thanks so much for sharing that Kellie!

I'm feeling better about this every day. I'm not gonna go into the

entire year long story, but we had our house sold, then they

inspected it & found the termites. I was shocked. So called

the exterminator company & the first thing the guy said to us as he

walked in was " so I've been here before huh? " . We were like " ahhhh,

no!'. Sure enough, the same exterminator was at our house 10/22/96

and wrote up an estimate to treat active termites!!!! WHOA! We

didn't more to our house til 12/20/96. We were shocked. I FINALLY

found a copy of the seller's disclosure report this morning & the

previous owners reported " none " on the History of Infestation

questions, that specifically asks " Termites, etc. " ....you are

required by law to answer truthfully.

So the exterminator wrote us a letter saying he did an est. for

previous owners with the date. just called me after he had the

inspectore WE paid inspect the home before we moved in who didn't

find any active termites at the time. He did say he couldn't get to

several areas of the basement (where they commonly are) becuz of the

owner's clutter. Interesting! I'm sure they cluttered the area on

purpose.

Soooooo, I think we have a pretty good case. We lost the sale of the

house after the potential buyers found the termites, have had no

other offers, have paid $1100.00 to get the termites treated, as well

as all the structural damage to our home, which we don't know how

much it will be yet.

In hindsight, we know we've had them for quite some time now. We

replaced the wood paneling in the basement office becuz it was very

very weak, we simply thought it was cheap paneling or water damage?

We didn't ever think of termites, this was 3 yrs ago now. Also, all

our cardboard boxes had holes in them, again, we just thought

moisture from the basement. This has been going on since day one in

the house.

Sorry this got so long, I'm so sick of termite talk! But we are just

so gosh darn ticked about this! These stupid previous owners thought

they were free & clear! HAAAAAAAA. They're in for a shock!

I've never sued before, but this is a definite case we've got.

Thanks for the info Kellie!

Debbie Abby's mom

Termite Land Michigan

> Hey Debbie. I read your post about the termites and just wanted to

pipe in

> that I just took the deposition of a guy who is suing because of an

> undisclosed problem in his house he bought. The heating system was

pushing

> up soot and ash and turning their walls, curtains, furniture,

windows and

> paintings black. They tried to sue the previous owners for

nondisclosure,

> but they in turn went and got an attorney themselves and basically

said,

> " That's your problem. It wasn't like that when we lived there. "

So these

> guys filed a claim with their homeowner's insurance to pay for the

damage, of

> which the insurance company denied. So these guys are suing their

insurance

> company for nonpayment of their claim. It's for, I think, around

5,000,

> because his attorney was trying to talk the attorney I was working

for into

> not taking it to trial for such a little amount. I just thought

I'd share

> that, because it looks like these guys are going to get something

from these

> guys. That's my two cents...: )

>

> Kellie