Recently, I have seen a few sellers of a home either not disclosing existing foundation problems or purposely hiding critical information about it. One example follows:
The seller (a house investor aka “flipper”) provided documents to the buyer that showed that 35 piers had been installed under the front portion of the foundation, including in the interior. The documents also showed that the foundation had been 8 inches out of level (prior to the foundation repairs). The home had been extensively remodeled after the pier installation.
The prospective buyer retained me to inspect the foundation. I determined that the house was still over 3 inches out of level and that the front portion of the foundation had been lifted about 5”. I recommended that the buyer ask if the seller had had the sub slab plumbing tested after the lift. The seller said that the foundation repair company told him that it was not necessary so no test had been conducted.
I advised my client to insist that the plumbing be checked. A few days later, the seller sent a copy of an invoice from a plumber that stated there were no plumbing leaks. However, the address on the invoice did not exist, the plumbing company did not exist and the plumber who reportedly did the test was not a licensed plumber. The invoice was obviously a fake.
The buyer backed out of the contract
