Hello, this is Hunter Cavell, an attorney in Cleveland, Ohio. And today I want to talk about the real estate market. It’s very hot right now. If you’ll notice, there are many people that are selling over list and there’s multiple offers. Now, hopefully you found the right house. But a lot of people, to be competitive in this market, are going in with certain things that I would recommend against and so would realtors that I know, which is including waiving an inspection.
And the reason for this is sometimes sellers may sell a house that has either a crack in a sewer pipe or even worse, they conceal something in the hopes that it gets away. Now, an inspector is supposed to catch that because typical real estate contracts have an as-is clause, which means basically, buyer beware. You get what you get. And it’s very hard to get around this. While there are certain disclosures that have to be made on any property in Ohio, such as floods or repairs, nondisclosure is typically not enough to constitute a fraudulent level to have an actionable lawsuit.
The only real way to get around it is to prove that they fraudulently concealed something like, let’s say there was a leak in a basement and they painted over the mold trying to hide it. You would have to be able to prove that the prior owner knew about the mold and purposely painted over it and that you wouldn’t have bought the house otherwise, or at least not at the price you paid. That’s why these cases are so hard. So the best tip is to protect yourself from the beginning and make sure you get an inspection and go through the house, possibly go to the city and see if there are any permits that have been pulled for any work that might disclose any renovations. And maybe try to see if there’s been any insurance claims on the house in the last five to ten years. That’s my tip for the day. Check out cavelllaw.com or call me at (440) 940-6441 for more information.
Thank you.