Expert: Lisa Webber - 4/27/2009

Question
My daughter is buying her first home in Maryland.  Her realtor told her that the house she was interested in had central air.  She told her this twice when she was asked.  When my daughter got the appraisal, she discovered that central air was not mentioned.  My daughter has put up approx. 2,300 for various things (203K inspection, earnest money, etc. ), and now does not know what her options are.  The seller did not misrepresent the house, her own realtor did.  She wants the house but her realtor is only willing to put in 2 air conditioning units when it is a 4 bedroom house.  My daughter has contacted a contractor to see how much it will be to put in central air.  Is there any legal that says that her realtor needs to make good on what she represented the house to have?

Answer
I'm puzzled as to why the Realtor couldn't figure out if there were central air or not.  You may want to discuss your situation with the agents broker and see if you can work something out with them.  The agent may be new and may have not known how to determine the different systems in the home.  The broker of record for the office has some responsibility for the agents that work for the office and it sounds like you may need the broker's expertise in this situation.  Realtors are independent contractors but we are licensed by the state and have to work under a "broker of record".  I would involve the broker to oversee the rest of the transaction.  The broker would not be happy to know an agent is not representing a home properly because they don't want to incur liability either.  That would be my suggestion for a first step, to go into the office and meet with the agents broker and see what ideas they have to resolve the situation. Legal actions are normally expensive and time-consuming and you may be able to settle any problems directly with the broker that the agent works for to avoid a lot of headache.  Good luck!