My clients sold a house.  That’s why they were sued in Small Claims Court.  Caveat Emptor was their defence and they won.

My clients didn’t come to me right away.  They thought they could handle it on their own, but the buyer of my client’s house insisted he was right and wanted to see it through to the end.  It did end with a win for my clients, and court costs for the buyer.  Let me explain.

My clients were selling a house and the buyer wanted to look it over with his Realtor and a home inspector as a condition of an offer already on the table.  The home inspector arrived first at the house and my client was there. My client noticed a problem with the foundation and pointed it out to the home inspector.  When the buyer arrived sometime later, the home inspector ran through some of the problems that my client pointed out.  After the home inspection, a list was compiled by the buyer’s Realtor and was added to a Schedule ‘A’ for things to be repaired by the closing of the deal.  The buyer signs a Fulfillment of Condition (home inspection) that states that he was satisfied.

My clients did the repairs, the house was sold, everything was tikkity-boo and everyone was happy.  So my clients thought.

Eight months later, my clients receive a Plaintiff’s Claim.  The buyer claimed that my clients either fraudulently or negligently misrepresented the house and that my clients failed to disclose the problems found in the home.

“Caveat Emptor” means “buyer beware”, but this doctrine only applies to older resale homes, not new homes under warranty.  When you are the seller (vendor) of a home, you are not required to disclose anything to the buyer (purchaser) except in two circumstances:  if it is a “latent” defect (when it cannot be discovered by ordinary inspection) that makes the house either unfit or unsafe to live in.  The duty to know what you are buying rests on the purchaser.  Two ways in which the purchaser can protect themselves is by asking for specific warranties in the Agreement to Purchase and Sale or by having a home inspector come in and look the place over.  If there are other systems, such as septic, well-water, or a swimming pool, the vendor should be getting inspections from qualified experts for each system.  Make sure that your selling real estate agent has a “whole-agreement” clause to protect you.

Unfortunately, these kinds of lawsuits occur long after the ink on the agreement has dried and you’ve moved into your new home.

Fortunately, Simon M. Brown Paralegal Services has had success in these types of cases in the Small Claims Court by either winning the case outright or significantly reducing the amount claimed against the seller.  Click on this link to contact me for a free case evaluation.