If the seller hid water damage, intrusion or flooding, you have legal rights as the buyers. Some buyers are shocked to find water damage after they have bought their home because they should have been protected by the seller disclosure form showing latent defects.
If the seller has hidden water damage from you during the sales process, you do not have to sit idly by and just pay the repair or waterproofing bills. Instead, you can sue the seller for financial compensation.
Whitney, LLP’s real estate lawyers help home buyers bring claims and file lawsuits against dishonest and negligent home sellers, house flippers, real estate agents and termite inspection companies across Maryland. Our attorneys recover compensation for buyers to repair hidden damage and defects, and for emotional distress. We offer Legal Consultations.
If you need a real estate lawyer near me to help with hidden damage, failure to disclose defects, negligence or fraud in the purchase of a house, Call Us at 410 583 8000 or use our Online Quick Contact Form.
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The Seller Must Disclose Hidden Water Damage
Water damage and water intrusion is a defect in the home that must be disclosed. The seller had the legal requirement to be honest and tell you if there was any water damage in the past on the Seller’s Disclosure Form.
You are relying on the seller to give you the full and accurate information in order to make the decision about whether to buy the home and how much to pay.
You Can Sue for Undisclosed Water Damage
Of course, once you discover the seller’s lying is to file a lawsuit against them and possibly the sales agent, if any, who participated in the deception or was aware of ti. What you ultimately ask for in court depends on how bad the damage is and the extent of their misconduct. You have the right to be made whole when you are the victim of nondisclosure.
There are two primary things that you could seek in a water damage lawsuit against the seller. In many cases, you are facing thousands of dollars of damage or more but still want to keep the Frederick home. In these instances, you would file a lawsuit asking the seller to pay for the costs of repairing the damage. If the seller committed fraud, you are possibly entitled to obtain even more money beyond what it would cost to fix the damage.
In cases where there is severe damage, you could ask the court to rescind your purchase of the home and pass it back to the seller. You always have this option since your home purchase was based on a disclosure statement that did not tell you everything you needed to know before you agreed to buy the home for a certain price,
The key thing here is that your lawsuit will need to prove that the seller knew about the water damage at the time of the sale. This can be proven using evidence of past repairs, speaking with neighbors, signs of past water intrusion that were covered up, and other investigative methods.
It is not always easy to prove what the seller knew at the time. This is why you need a real estate lawyer on your side. Your real estate attorney will get to the bottom of your case and try to help you show that the seller knew about the damage and hid it.
Attorneys Helping Buyers Sue Sellers for Hidden Water Damage and Flooding
When a seller hides water damage, buyers have legal rights and can sue to recover compensation. Whitney, LLP’s lawyers have experience suing sellers for failing to disclose damage and harmful conditions.
If you were the victim of a dishonest seller, real estate agent or WDI/termite inspection company in Maryland, contact Whitney, LLP’s real estate lawyers at 410 583 8000, or use our Online Quick Contact Form, for your Legal Consultation.
We represent homebuyers throughout Maryland, including Baltimore, Columbia, Germantown, Silver Spring, Waldorf, Frederick, Glen Burnie, Gaithersburg, Bethesda, Dundalk, Towson, Aspen Hill and Wheaton.