What better place to come and vent than here? Any Attorney/lawyer or real estate savvy monkeys please read. Skip to the last paragraph if you want the summary...
My wife and I just purchased a house in February. In the home inspection the guy found quite a bit of mold in one corner of the basement. At that time the inspector told us "its probably just the down spout leaking into the ground. In the spring work on shedding the water away from the home and eventually it will go away".
Flash forward 2-3 months. We start seeing more mold in a few areas in the basement. Water has come in the basement in one area in heavy rains.
So we have a water proofer come in and look at the basement. He quotes $9,000 to do an internal system on TWO of the walls. (half of our basement is finished, he didnt seem concerned about water on the two finished walls). We sign a contract with the guy thinking that we will have to get this done one way or another. And also "how much different could pricing be from one guy to the next?"
A few days later we find out that the sellers should be liable for paying for all this. They checked "NO" on all three areas on the homes disclosure about water damage or seepage in the home. So I have 2 more places come in to quote fixing the basement. They both quote under $6k for ALL 4 WALLS.
Now Im screwed because if I send a letter to the sellers with a $9,000 quote and sub $6,000 quotes, they are going to go for the less of them. But we signed the contract for the $9,000 job.
Now the $9,000 contractor is saying if we back out we owe them 1/3 the bill. The info I have gained from a contractor attorney is that he has never heard of that.
So, I'm caught in a bind with the original contractor because I want to get out of the contract. He says he wants 1/3. I want the sellers to pay up, but they are going to pick the least of these if they even will help at all. Im trying to find a real estate attorney right now to help me out in getting the sellers to help. But I havent found a attorney to step up.
I just want my basement back to normal and to move on with my life.
My wife and I just purchased a house in February. In the home inspection the guy found quite a bit of mold in one corner of the basement. At that time the inspector told us "its probably just the down spout leaking into the ground. In the spring work on shedding the water away from the home and eventually it will go away".
Flash forward 2-3 months. We start seeing more mold in a few areas in the basement. Water has come in the basement in one area in heavy rains.
So we have a water proofer come in and look at the basement. He quotes $9,000 to do an internal system on TWO of the walls. (half of our basement is finished, he didnt seem concerned about water on the two finished walls). We sign a contract with the guy thinking that we will have to get this done one way or another. And also "how much different could pricing be from one guy to the next?"
A few days later we find out that the sellers should be liable for paying for all this. They checked "NO" on all three areas on the homes disclosure about water damage or seepage in the home. So I have 2 more places come in to quote fixing the basement. They both quote under $6k for ALL 4 WALLS.
Now Im screwed because if I send a letter to the sellers with a $9,000 quote and sub $6,000 quotes, they are going to go for the less of them. But we signed the contract for the $9,000 job.
Now the $9,000 contractor is saying if we back out we owe them 1/3 the bill. The info I have gained from a contractor attorney is that he has never heard of that.
So, I'm caught in a bind with the original contractor because I want to get out of the contract. He says he wants 1/3. I want the sellers to pay up, but they are going to pick the least of these if they even will help at all. Im trying to find a real estate attorney right now to help me out in getting the sellers to help. But I havent found a attorney to step up.
I just want my basement back to normal and to move on with my life.
