Expert: Matt Heisler - 12/18/2007

Question
Hi Matt:

Prior to my recent divorce, my former husband and I purchased a home (April 2007).  We were separated during purchase and I was under a lot of pressure at the time.  I already have had a lot of work done to the home.  Some of this that was found after I moved in, the inspector missed, but I let it go.  However, I've just found that the boards along the top of the house (just alongside the roof) on the east side of my house are rotted and rotting.  They had been painted over.  I checked my inspection report and found this: "The exterior ease side of the home is not accessible for inspection due to the zero lot line property."  Couldn't he have gotten permission from the neighbor to inspect instead of letting it go?  As I was under a lot of stress, shouldn't my realtor have covered this?  Do I have any recourse in your opinion as this is going to be a big dollar repair?  Thanks so much for your time and advise.

Answer
Hello Sandra:

It is the responsibility of the purchaser to make sure the home is in satisfactory condition.  The correct time to read the report is not when you find a problem - it's after the inspection.  It looks to me that the inspector was quite clear that he was unable to view this, and if viewing this was a priority for you, it should have been raised with the seller, or your agent, to make an inspection available, at the time of inspection.  For example, I recently had an inspection and as a result, we agreed with the seller that we still needed to examine several items before our inspection was complete, as they were not available at inspection time.  Experts are there to help, but the buyer still has a lot of responsibility in making sure the home meets their requirements.  I don't see any recourse here, but whether or not you can get recourse is really a legal question for an attorney, which I am not.  But my experience tells me that you are probably better off focusing on the problem and not the blame!

Best of Luck-

Matt Heisler