$500 and Disclosure statement

It's too late for me now- but is this an option? Could I have refused $500 credit in favor of an actual disclosure statemtn and having the sellers be responsible for any problems that were there when we moved in? For example- the basement gets water in it when it rains long and hard (thanks "inspection guy" for raving about our nice dry basement ), the dishwasher that runs but doesn't clean anything or change settings?

Just wondering...

Message edited 12/9/2009 10:58:08 AM.

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

This is the seller's choice. Not the buyers.

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

nope its not your choice. and to be honest that's not fair because you would be holding that seller responsible for ANYTHING wrong with the entire property back to the time the house was built, and they were more then likely not the original owners, and on top of that, something could be wrong with the land (i.e. waste was dumped there) even before the house was built, and they would be responsible for that. Think of it from their side, how is that fair

ETA- the issues you mention are a pain and I feel bad you have to deal with them, but that comes with homeownership

Message edited 12/9/2009 11:16:52 AM.

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

Try redirecting or extending your gutters. We used to get water in the basement, but only on days like today, when it was a REALLY hard rain. I wouldn't have expected the inspector to catch it, since it didn't happen frequently.

Once we had gutter extensions put on and directed the water further away from the house, we stopped getting the water in the basement.

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

Posted by HeatherRose

ETA- the issues you mention are a pain and I feel bad you have to deal with them, but that comes with homeownership

Message edited 12/9/2009 11:49:13 AM.

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

Posted by kahlua716


And it WOULD be fair to the sellers if they had had the choice to do the same when they bought the house.

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

I dont think you can refuse the $500 once a seller has signed it. and a seller would be foolish not to sign it.

Look at it this way, if the tables were turned and you were the seller, would you want to be responsible for a repair on a dishwasher that breaks months after you sold a house?? things break, thats the "joys" of homeownership.

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

we had the owners give pay for a year of a home warranty.
which was lucky b/c the compressor broke in our central ac in august.

the house is old and things in it are old and we knew that we'd have to replace things sooner rather than later, but unfortunatly many things have happend much sooner and weren't covered under the warranty...
new washer and dryer, new furnace and hot water heater... sigh....

ah the joys of home ownership....

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

Posted by HeatherRose

Posted by kahlua716


And it WOULD be fair to the sellers if they had had the choice to do the same when they bought the house.

I'm not really sure I understand this. how is it fair to ANYONE to be resposible for EVERYTHING that has happened on the land or in the home from the begining of time

Message edited 12/9/2009 4:32:58 PM.

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

Just get the home warranty, it is a LIFESAVER! My mom bought us ours as a gift and we had a MAJOR plumbing issue that would've cost us about 4 times the amount that the warranty cost from the year. It'd also cover your dishwasher and not sure about the basement?

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

we had no choice to take it but we had a house that was sold "as is" on top of that. We knew that we got water in the basement from one area because we went during a rainy time to see houses we considered buying always. We pretty much knew what was wrong with the house with the inspection WITH THE EXCEPTION of our chimney. We had a chimney sweep clean out the fireplace and we found out the vent from the gas heat when it was convereted from oil never had the liner replaced which is against the law now but not when they did it in 1980 so we had to pay for that $2,000 along with a new damper for our fireplace.

I do agree with that insurance, we really should do that but I have been putting it off since we dumped all of our money into fixing our major issues (electric, bedroom, conversion from bathroom to laundry, etc) but it does save you a ton of money when things break. I do feel that you should be made aware of things such as cesspools/abandon oil tanks etc - we have no idea about this stuff and where it would be.

Re: $500 and Disclosure statement

we had to disclose when we sold in CA. It was a PITA...but our REA was pretty laxed about it...there are no RE lawyers involved there anyway


for your basement...get a dehumidifier - it will help!