Posted by Rich-CA on April 20, 2007 at 23:30:31:
If they required permits for the work and did not have them, this should be disclosed because it puts a new owner in a bad legal position. However, tax records are usually not updated because they usually do a “curbside” appraisal, which means nobody actually goes inside to see if its been modified. Has the sq ft of the interior changed? If not, then the main basis for taxing the property is still intact.
Material Misrepresentation - Posted by Kate
Posted by Kate on April 20, 2007 at 15:51:41:
We bought this house two years ago. We found it on the MLS advertised as a three bedroom house. It even gave room size measurements. After purchasing the house we found out that thetax records have this house as two bedrooms. I now am guessing that the third bedroom was the dining room and that the previous homeowners put up a wall to close it off. There is a window in this wall but it leads to a back foyer added onto the house. Bank and insurance company appraisers appraised this house as four bedrooms- counting that room and the attic as a bedroom. Should the selling realestate agent known not to count this as a bedroom? Is this misrepresentation? If so, can we pursue a legal course? We paid what we did for a three bedroom house. Just want to make sure we can market it as that when we eventually sell- or get the difference back.
Did You Inspect it First??? - Posted by Jimmy
Posted by Jimmy on April 22, 2007 at 12:11:10:
that the dining room had been converted should have been obvious to you, and should absolutely have been obvious to your inspector. in my state, it ain’t a bedroom unless it has a door to a hallway, a window to the outside, and a closet with a door. converted spaces are sometimes called sunrooms. but is is misrep that they called this room a bedroom. Not in my opinion.
I bought a house in Austin 2 years ago, which officialy is a 4/3 and x square feet. but there’s about 700 feet of flor space that used to be an outside deck, and was previously (w/o permit) enclosed in a solarium, and which is not heated and cooled by an additional CHA system. and a large attick space had been finished off as a large walk-in closet, and an office. that added another 600 sf. Was it misrep for the sellers to say the house was x plus 1300sf? nope.