Home, Land, Property Buying and Selling - Opinions - post home sale problem

Potential problem... sold a house that we bought and fixed up all under two months. Prev owners mentioned that heat started to act up on them but they never had it serviced because they were basically living off of the insurance proceeds they recieved after Katrina. We bought the place from them AS-IS with a wiaver of redhibition. Now we have fixed it up and sold it and the new owners are calling about the heat now working right and A/C not working right etc. they also bought the place from us As-IS with a waiver of redhibition. They never had the house inspected nor did we, the sale took place over 2 months ago and they are just now starting to call. They have not yet asked us to pay for anything but I feel its coming, would anyone agree that they are pretty much out of gas? We never had the unit serviced the short time we owned the property because we never needed to use the heat, did use the air but it worked fine for us.

Non legal opinion for an average JOE.

AS IS means AS IS. It is not your problem. At least it should not be your problem in my opinion.

as is does not mean as is if you are aware of a problem.

Did you accurately fill out the disclosure form??

If you had a realtor involved. Talk to your realtor about this before you make any mistakes or 2nd guess anything.

Both sales were FSBO, both when we bought the house and when we sold it 2 months later.

Like nap mentioned:

Did you accurately fill out the disclosure form??

Check all the forms you and the buyer signed/acknowledged.

I'm with Joe - AS IS. Usually means you are willing to suck up anything you discover later becasue you're getting a great deal. Nobody in their right mind would pay top-dollar on an AS-IS piece of property. The previous owner mentioned the heat; so? Did you know for a fact it was faulty, as in you had it checked by a HVAC compnay and they told you it was a goner? Obviously not. Should you have mentioned it to the buyer? Perhaps, but caveat emptor.

Another layman's $.02 worth. :coffee:

Caveat emptor is one thing but if the seller failed to disclose a known defect, or even a suspected one, caveat emptor does not cover them in real estate.

You can make no attempt to decieve, even if it is by ommission.

I have never dealt with a waiver of redhibition, it is not used in my state. I would imagine that even if the waiver was signed, there are regulations that would annul the waiver if disclosures were improper.

Now the fact is you did know of a possible hvac problem. I do know that in many states you would be required to disclose this info, even if you were not aware of the severity of the problem. The onus would then be placed upon the buyer to accept the disclosure, terminate the sale, or have additional inspections performed. You could not waive the responsibility regardless what was signed.

When we bought the place the pre owners said the heat was not working right, we bought the place in Feb here in south Louisiana where the heat was not used at that time. We never lived in the house and never had the heat inspected or service etc. so I don't know for a fact it was bad. The folks that bought the house from us had been in the house numerous times after and before signing the contract and we even let them in a few days before closing to start moving in etc. so they had ample time to inspect and find any problems. The way I look at it its should be their problem, kinda like buyer beware situation.

I understand where nap is coming from, but I'm still a little dubious. They were in the house a number of times and never switched on the HVAC to see if it worked? Would be kind of like never turning on a faucet or switching on a light.
I suppose it all depends on what the ultimate cure is; replacing a defective thermostat is one thing, but replacing an entire system would be another. And to throw another wrench in the works, maybe the buyer did turn the hvac on and knew there was a problem but went ahead anyway not wanting to sidetrack a good deal. Then after they move in they discover that the problem is more expensive than anticiapted and now they're yelling.:confused:

In my opinion if you are planning on flipping houses as a bussiness it would be good ethics to work with these people on the issue. I agree they were not to smart as to not have an inspection done on the home prior to purchase but a bad reputation is very hard to shake. You could offer to split the cost of repairs in order to keep a good name in the future.

Not really in the business of flipping houses, just saw a good deal and took it for a flip. Guess wait and see if they call again and see what they ask from me. The house was built in 93 and heat/air was original so for them to get a brand new unit out of this will not fly with me if I can help it. Of course any service company that comes out will want to install a new unit.

The previous owners disclosed a potential issue. You did not.

As is means "what you see is what you get, and you know as much as I do"

Work with the people, because if you think realtors are expensive, wait till the lawyers jump in.....

Your redhibition (lemon) law does discuss foreknowledge on the part of the seller (it allows a year for action), but because you have a waiver, you would probably want to find out how the As-Is sale will correspond with the waiver. Sounds like an attorney discussion.

Of course, my first inclination would be to ask the buyer if they have had a professional look at the problem and give them a bid. Heck, if by chance the problem is something fairly easy to fix, maybe you can split the cost or negotiate some sort of happy place for everyone. Some of the other posts mention using good faith as a tool, and I tend to agree. Keeps the dogs off sometimes.

Good luck!

So I will ask does your state have a disclosure law and did you comply? If you had disclosed the possible problem it would all be mute.

The waiver itself appears to make the problem moot regardless of any disclosures (or non-disclosures). At least the linked "standard" form. If you used some type of custom form, all bets are off.

http://www.lrec.state.la.us/forms/WaiverOfWarranty.pdf

Seems pretty plain that the buyer is out of luck, and if they start to bug you I would certainly push back using that waiver, but again, an attorney review might be useful just to solidify your position.

The waiver itself appears to make the problem moot regardless of any disclosures (or non-disclosures). At least the linked "standard" form. If you used some type of custom form, all bets are off.

http://www.lrec.state.la.us/forms/WaiverOfWarranty.pdf

Seems pretty plain that the buyer is out of luck, and if they start to bug you I would certainly push back using that waiver, but again, an attorney review might be useful just to solidify your position.

Wow, La. is surely a beast of it's own kind. It would seem that you can actually sell a home as-is in La. without fears of retribution from the buyer. Live and learn.

Isn't Louisiana great. Thats the exact form I had them sign. Seems like it should be that way in every state with As-Is sales. Guy has not called back yet but I image he will since this is his frist home purchase and is not aware of house it works.

Never happen here in CA, it suggests an inkling of personal responsibility.
We subscribe fully to the victim mentality here. When the hammer strikes the finger instead of the nail, it's the fault of either 1) The deepest pocket related in some way to the hammer, or 2) The deepest pocket related to the nail.

Could be a conspiracy.
Time to call the lawyers.
Buy the book and DVD.
Seeya on Oprah baby!

I would say that they would need to get it fixed, only because a) they bought the home as-is and b) they never had it inspected. An inspection would have caught that the heating/a/c didn't work and they could have asked for repairs as part of their offer/during escrow.

Jenisa

I live in New Orleans and have bought several houses on an "As Is" basis with WOR. Given the history in the area, this is the only way real estate is bought and sold. Here's my thoughts...

1. As long as you fully disclosed everything you knew about the house on the LA disclosure form (required for all home sales in LA) and were honest about your knowledge of any defects in the house, they have no grounds to come back at you.

2. All home buyers have 10 days to perform home inspections prior to closing on the house. Without an inspection report, t is hard to prove that someone had knowledge of the problem. Their loss for not spending a couple hundred dollars on an inspection.

3. You have just as good an argument as they do that the air could have broke after the act-of-sale. If you operated it for 2 months with no issues, this is likely the case.

Last, if they call back ask if they purchased a home warranty. If so, all repairs are covered and neither of you have to worry.

This is a perfect example of why we have so many disclosures to contend with in real estate. Slidell bought the house "as is", however they were given a better understanding of what "as is" actually was by the previous seller.
The way the story is presented, it sounds less like an oversight, than of a cringe and hope it works long enough to get past seller liability, time-wise. I'd have the buyer get an estimate on a repair. My opinion is that Slidell should pay for it, being that they didn't tell the buyer about it, and the buyer lost their "benefit of the bargain". Slidell had the advantage of being able to negotiate based on a less than 100% functional HVAC. I would also point out that my experience has shown me that when someone says that something "might not be working properly", consider it broken. It seems to me that an AC system that's under 20 years old should be repairable.
Because of such things, my office has generated a "Seller's Memory Jogger" form. This form asks specific questions regarding issues of drainage, roof repairs, etc. that prompt a seller's memory for material facts relating to condition. Prior to this, seller's didn't have to disclose repairs made to the roof, for instance. Next rain the roof would leak and the seller claim that "it was repaired so I didn't have to disclose a problem". It's all about giving the buyer a real idea of the condition of the property. In real estate there's an old saying, "When it doubt, disclose". In Slidell's case, there was an obvious doubt. Good luck.

LOL you can't get more of a disclosure than telling the buyer's that the property is sold "AS-IS" with WOR.

If the law in your state requires disclosure of problems you had knowledge of (and you ADMIT that you did have such knowledge), then an "as is" document does not necessarily absolve you of responsibility.

The people you bought the home from told you of the problem. You didn't do the same for the people you sold to. One has to wonder why . . . .

The difficulties you now have when this chicken comes back to roost are well deserved.

:coffee: