Real estate matters: Buying 'as is' means 'as is'

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Real estate matters: Buying 'as is' means 'as is'

Nashville City Paper - Nashville,TN*

By: By Illyce Glink

Friday, July 18, 2008

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=61516

Q: We recently purchased a home that had been foreclosed on by the

bank. The terms of the purchase contract were for the property

in " as is " condition.

The home inspection report did not say anything about the presence

of mold in the house. The basement was a bit wet and stinking, but

the realtor told us that it was humidity coming up and that there

was pet fecal matter all over the carpet that caused the stink.

After we purchased the house and moved in, we called carpet

installation people to put in new carpet. They informed us that

there is a lot of mold in the basement, which we needed to remediate

first.

The mold remediation people inspected the basement and told us that

the basement had been wet in the past (possibly multiple times) and

the previous owners tried to paint over the mold areas to hide it.

But the mold kept growing.

Is the seller (the bank) is under an obligation to disclose the mold

problem? Is this an action we can pursue against them even though it

was an " as is " contract? Should the home inspector have found the

mold and warned us about it? Can we pursue any action against him?

Finally, the realtor said she thought it was humidity and smell from

the pet fecal matter. I'm not sure if she genuinely thought it was

humidity and pet droppings or she would have said anything to get

the sale closed.

What are our options?

A: When you buy property in " as is " condition, whether it was

previously foreclosed upon or not, you take the property in the

condition that it is in. The action you should consider is against

the home inspector who obviously missed a huge red flag (even you

smelled something funny!). The agent is under no obligation to find

out more about the condition of the home. That is your department.

If the agent does know something about the condition of the property

and doesn't disclose what he or she knows, then you may have grounds

to pursue a case against the agent and his or her brokerage firm.

If you didn't use a real estate attorney to close your deal (someone

that you hired to represent you, not someone you paid for who worked

for the lender), go find a good one and spend an hour discussing

what, if any, legal options you have at this point.

If I had to guess, I'd say that you're going to have to foot a

pretty big bill in order to get this property cleaned up and

livable. Hopefully you paid a lot less by buying this foreclosure

and you have the cash reserves in order to do what is necessary to

make this house something you'd want to live in.

If you want to know what a good home inspection looks like, check

out my 22 home inspection videos at ExpertRealEstateTips.net.