Posted by dealmaker on January 21, 2007 at 19:33:06:
Well Diane your post sounds like you’ve already closed on the house, so how much leverage do you have?
Although it’s too late for you the lesson can still be learned for future reference; in cases like this have the seller put enough $$ into escrow to REPLACE (if not easily reparable) the fireplace.
Otherwise it’s going to be small claims court where you’ll pay upwards of $50 to file, then show up in court, where the sellers WON’T show up, at which point you’ll have a default judgement, WHICH IS (like 99%+ of all personal judgements) WORTHLESS.
Posted by Diane B. on January 21, 2007 at 19:27:13:
We (my husband and myself) have just purchased a home and the sellers had agreed to repairing a gas fireplace which was not working. At the start of the negotiations, the sellers said that the fireplace worked but upon pushing them to bring in a service person, it was found that the fireplace needed a specific part. Since the fireplace is ten years old, the manufacturer would have to build the part and on their time, so it could be many months before this fireplace is repaired. The paper stated that these repairs would be completed before we moved in which we have not done yet. We also did not sign the paper which laid out these repairs. My question is; are we within our rights to request a new fireplace of comparable nature and if the sellers do not agree to this, would this be a breach of contract? Thank you for any information you can give.