So you’ve found the perfect house, negotiated over the price, dealt with the bank, and finally closed. Q: We recently purchased a home that has severe hail damage although we were unaware of it at the time of the closing. The sellers have the cash and the house at that point. Do they have a case? Most defects and problems that are found during this inspection period, are resolved between the buyer and seller before closing. If you need to start moving things in, perhaps you can offer the seller limited storage in the garage for a couple of days after closing. Delay closing and withhold funds in escrow. We think the buyers may try to sue us to replace their roof. Four days after the inspection, a hail storm hit Columbus, Ohio, and at the end of that month we closed on the house. Then after the sale, your home probably continued its normal process of aging and decaying, leaving you to deal with the consequences. I just recently bought a house only to find out I have $16,000 worth of hail damage on my roof. However, exceptions do apply. 3. A closing may fall through for many reasons, including title-insurance surprises, buyer financing rejections, inspection failures, … We replaced the roof right after moving in about 7 years ago. What do you do? Examples of Home Defects Discovered by Buyers After the Sale. It can be such a disappointment, finding issues after the purchase of your new single family home or condo. If you haven’t signed the final closing paperwork yet — don’t. The defect was not obvious to visitors. It’s so important to have a property inspection before closing. None of these sorts of issues provide any grounds upon which to run back to the seller to complain. Will your insurance company cover the damage? Do determine the liability, if any at all, of the seller for plumbing problem, for example, courts will look to the purchase agreement for the home, the nature of the problem, whether you had a home inspection, and any specific misrepresentations by the seller. We recently sold our house in October 2014 and the buyers experienced a roof leak about a month after closing. After all, if it's not a new home, it was her roof before it was yours. Refuse to continue with the closing until the repairs have been made to your satisfaction. Apparently, there was a big hail storm on the weekend between inspection and closing. Unfortunately, some are not. We did NOT have any issues with leaks prior to selling the home. Generally, when you purchase a home, you are on the hook for all future repairs. We had the home inspection prior to the closing and everything was fine. Nothing is more disappointing than thinking your home sale is a done deal, only to have it crumble in the final stages of the process. If so, there may be no need to take action on your own. There is typically a two month period between the time that a buyer signs a contract with a seller and the actual date of closing. But if the problem likely started before you bought the house, then you might have a chance at recovery. Once you close, you lose leverage. It would be very easy for a seller to argue that the damage was pre-existing, and if the buyer did not inspect, there is no way of proving otherwise. If there was a huge crack running across the living room ceiling at the open house and you only decide to bring it up months after the closing, you are unlikely to have a successful case. What happens if the property is damaged during this period? There are a number of ways a buyer can protect himself or herself from serious defects, both before and after the closing. 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