Expert: Hans Weber, Licensed Broker Associate - 1/8/2007

Question
My wife and I bought a house in NY about 10 months ago. We had some bathroom floor issues so we decided to fix them and have the bathroom repainted. Also we were going to have the floor in our bathroom in the basement done as well. When the contractor took off the glue on molding (for lack of a better term) he discovered that the sellers had covered up the fact that the masonite and the sheetrock had rotted out and were very water damaged. The seller had told me specifically that they had never had any water problems in the house and they were the ones who had the house built. Can I recoup any of my losses? It looks as though the walls of the bathroom will need  to be ripped out and replaced due to the damage as well as the mold and mildew that has now grown there.  

Answer
Hi Dan,

Thank you for your question.

I am sure you had an engineering inspection.  The rotted wood you are refering to was probably not visible to the inspector.  

Since the damage was hidden by the molding it could be possible the seller did not know about it and it happened over a long period of time.  

One can always bring legal action against anyone for any reason, but the cost and time will probably be more in this case than repairing the damage.

You can always just have your lawyer contact the seller's lawyer and register your complaint along with repair estimates.  Perhaps they will do something for you then, but not likely.

Hans