Expert: Dick Dennis - 7/12/2006

Question
I am a licensed salesperson.  I represented a buyer in a residential home purchase transaction in Delray Beach, Florida.

This is an interesting situation.. The buyers purchased the home 1 year ago.  Their homeowners insurance company went out of business so they needed to shop for new insurance.  In the process of shopping for new insurance they were denied covergage from one particular company because in the past there was a liability claim paid for an injury that occurred at this property.

I contacted the seller's agent to see if she knew anything about this previous claim and she indicated that she was aware of this and that it was actually her own daughter that was hurt (she fell off a trampoline).

The question here is...Did she and the sellers have a duty to disclose this to the buyers?  The buyers have been hurt because of this previous claim because they cannot get any insurance they want.  They have been able to find another carrier to cover them, but it was not their first choice.

What do you think?  They are thinking of getting an attorney involved if there is the possiblity of some monetary reward.

Answer
Don't bother with an attorney, Jay, unless they can prove there's enough money in this for the attorney's time and fee. At best, your client would have to prove how much more they had to pay with the new insurance company over the old and then they could take the sellers to small claims for that difference. Otherwise, they are wasting their time.

Here in California, Jay, part of the closing package is a document in which the seller discloses if he/she had any claim against an insurance company. Are you saying, FLA does not have such a document?

As you know by now, everything in these documents are strictly CYA stuff. Someone goofed if your state does require that kind of disclosure in writing. And if an agent is responsible, that office just might be responsible for the difference I was talking about above.

I do wish you well.

Dick Dennis             dixiedee13@aol.com

www.OldProblemSolver.com