Expert: Connie Wildasinn-Broker,GRI,Realtor® - 12/16/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi Connie,

I'm not sure exactly who to go to with my question, but hopefully you can help.

We bought a home in Feb. 2009 from an individual who bought the home as a foreclosure and flipped it in roughly a 6 month window.  There are certain renovations that were made that we've started to have some minor issues with, and by pure accident, we even found out the name of the company that did the work.

1) Should I contact the home improvement contractor that did the work, or would I be wasting my time?  They claim to offer a 1 year warranty, but I have no idea if that's commonly transferrable after a sale.

2) Do I have any right to the specifics on the work that was performed, when, etc.?  

3) Is there any potential risk to pursuing #1 or #2 (privacy, etc.)?

It probably seems like an odd question, I just really don't want to re-do work that's less than a year old because it wasn't done right the first time.

Thanks in advance.

ANSWER: Hi Kirk...

1. Good work finding out the home construction company... yes contact them and find out if the warranty was transferable.  You are never wasting time going straight to the source... and they may wish to fix, keep you happy and get more work.

2. Not use of the question on this one... may depend on what was done, coded or not, who exactly these contractors are.

3. no... go for  it.

You are right to want a quality job... I do hope you had a home inspection done.. I advise ALL of my buyers to get one, new, old, fresh, stale... I require on...

Good luck!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Connie,

First off, thank you so much for such a quick reply, I really appreciate the help.  On #2, I guess I was just trying to ask if I was overthinking all of this...glad to hear I may not be!

We did have an inspection done.  Looking back, I have some questions about the inspector, but ultimately, I don't think he missed anything terrible...just little things.  The problems I have now are with work that looked fine at the time, but went bad a couple months down the road.

Thanks again!

Answer
Hi Kirk...

Keep in mind, not even the most expensive job is done to perfection... you will always find things to redo and repair... I have worked with the best and the worst... sometimes you'd swear they were the same person...

But do go back and see if they will stand by their job... be nice.. you get more bees with honey then with vinegar

Good luck...