Failure to disclose.

[Anonymous]

OK we closed on a house last friday. We started having some plumbing problems. The plumber came out to clear our drain but the only way to do it would be to open the pipe in the basement and have raw sewage come out or to replace all the pipes leading to the sewer because it is a old house. The plumber was looking for an overflow vent somewhere outside the house but did not find one. He told us that the pipes should have never pased inspection and that the sellers most likely knew about the plumbing problem because there was a snake there and there were signs on the pipe that they opened it. I know no one was living there while they were trying to sell it but they were coming over to maintain the house and I am sure they been using the bathroom. I called my real estate agent who is a dual agent by the way said she would call her broker and call me back. she called back and said we should get another plumber to look at it! We called the home inspector and he is going to look at it again. He said it should have happened from the time he inspected it to the time we moved in. We cannot use the water for 2 days so the pipe can clear. We have 3 kids and this is the only bathroom! My question is would this be considered failure to disclose and should we talk to an attorney? Sorry for writing so much just really frustrated. Also it was a VA loan if that helps at all.

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Definitely sounds like you have a case - but it all comes down to if you can prove the other party knew about it.  How do you know that it was your sellers who did the pipe snake & opened them up?  Could it have been the previous owners before them?  Seems like at this point there is too much reasonable doubt.  It'd be best to talk to a real estate attorney to get a legal professional's opinion.  Most will do the initial consultation for free.

[Anonymous]

It was an estate sale and it was owned by the sellers parents since the sixties. The neighbors just informed us they always had sewage problems there. on top of it our real estate agent came to the house today and statred to yell at my wife for some reason then flew out of our parking lot. The inspector also came out today and took pictures saying that someone defiintley messed with it since the inspection.

[DallasLoanGuy]

document everything.

call the realtor's broker YOURSELF.

explain the yelling incident to the broker as well.

[Anonymous]

And never ever again use a dual agent..

One thing, by estate sale, did the parents pass away?

If the people handling the estate sale have never lived there (or are the kids who have not lived there for a long time) proving prior knowledge could be difficult.

I hope the home inspector has pictures from his inspection because you may have to be able to prove that he was not the negligent one if in fact he did the inspection or prove that the damage is recent.