Expert: Dick Dennis - 10/10/2011

Question
Hi Dick, We recently purchased a home and now find it is infested with bats, we did not have a home inspection done but relied on the home apraisal as our guide. Stupid but on a very tight budget! It stated he checked the insulation in the attic to make sure it was compliant with an fha loan, but if he had he would have had to seen the bat droppings! The bi level house had 2 small spots in the ceiling where it was worn through but we didn't think too much of it being the basement had to be finished and the house hadn't been updated since it was build in the mid 70's now we find the wear is due to years of bats. In my mind I would think the owner had to have known it was infested being our first week there we were kept up by scratching and chirping noises coming from above the master bedroom. The owner was quite old as well and put into a home but his family had to have known or even the realtor? The house is in a nice neighborhood of a small town and we thought we were getting a great deal by having a basement that needed to be refinished due to a toilet overflowing and damaging the lower level and by having no updates since it was built, thus pricing it over 100,000 less than 2 other houses on the block that were for sale and had the same type of layout and look. Any advice on the situation would be great. I do have a bat exterminator stopping by who told me if the infestation has been here for a while the sellers are liable for it and judging by the droppings and damage I see I know hey have been inside for quite sometime. Thanks much

Answer
Sorry to disappoint you, Jennie, but an appraiser is not a home inspector and never the twain shall they meet . . . or be confused as doing the other one's job. Plus, when the selling party is only a relative of the recorded owner, while the owner is in a retirement home, that person (relative or estate manager) will not be held liable for the condition of the house.

If you had had an inspector discover all this, you would have had a much better likelihood that the seller's estate would be held responsible for the bats or any other infestation. The way it is now, there is no way it can be ascertained when and if the owner knew about the bats. That goes for the real estate agent who had her listing, too. The agent who represented your interests certainly couldn't know about it without a report from the seller or her agent. It is not his/her job to act the part of an inspector or a fee appraiser. A real estate agent can only give "an estimate of value" based on what he/she knows about comparable sales in the neighborhood.

While you may have saved money not having an inspection done, how much is it going to cost you to set everything right? Plus, you probably don't have much to complain about, Jennie, when you have purchased the property for $100,000 below the value of neighborhood comparable homes. My guess you will not have to pay the difference in repairs. I wish you all the best in your new home. Enjoy.

Dick Dennis
dixiedee13@aol.com