Posted by Joanna Kaiser on August 14, 2005 at 24:13:24:
Great site. We’re considering joining a construction defects lawsuit in our development in CA. Our concern is about disclosure to future buyers. The law firm says that they will never give us a detailed list of defects found upon inspection of our home. This is apparently to protect us so we can “honestly” say we don’t know what’s wrong with the house. There does exist however a master list of ALL the defects found in every home that was inspected. Individual homes are not identified on this list. Fortunately, we have none of the major problems (foundational, mold, etc.) that other homes have.
My question is this – what level of disclosure is required at sale assuming we don’t know ALL that might be wrong with our house? We’ve repaired all the visible problems. We will have to disclose that there was a lawsuit that we were part of, but we don’t know what was found or not found. Will this pass legal muster? Would we have to disclose that master list of defects which lists way more problems than our one house has? If I were a buyer and heard that there was a lawsuit but that the seller wasn’t sure what the problems were, I’d be suspicious. Just don’t want to get sued down the road.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
JK