Freshening an Old Listing, and Other Tips for Worried Sellers

We felt that we were asking all the right questions and did a thorough inspection. We closed at the end of May, and we've been in the home for less than a month.

We were away for dinner during a thunderstorm recently, and when we returned, there was water coming in the ground-floor level over about one-third of the area, which is all living space. The storm was not that bad, so now we're worried that we've got a serious drainage problem.

The seller's disclosure mentioned that there had been standing water in the back yard, and we asked whether water had ever gotten in the house. They said that it had not, but we suspect that this problem has happened before.

What should we do? We think we've just bought a home that has a serious and expensive problem.

Your situation sounds troubling and has clearly marred the purchase.

Please call your real estate lawyer and consult with him or her about what your contract says, what New York's seller disclosure laws require, and what your sellers stated on their signed seller disclosure statement.

Although it seems unlikely that water never got into the house before, it's also possible that this is the first time. You need to do a little investigating. You should call the home inspector who helped you with the purchase and seek his or her advice.

In addition to your home inspector, you might want to talk to a plumber to see if there are any drains around the home that are clogged and need to be cleaned. If you can find out where the water is coming from, then you can see what it will cost to fix the issue.

Some people never realize when they buy a home that failure to perform routine maintenance can cause severe problems.

Some homeowners don't clean their gutters and downspouts. When they get clogged, the water pours down the side of the house and enters through open windows and bottoms of doors or even through cracks in the foundation. A simple cleaning of those gutters and downspouts fixes the problem.

I'm not saying that the water problem is your fault, but you need to make sure you know what caused it. If your problem isn't anything that you could have prevented through maintenance and if you find out that your sellers lied to you, your lawyer will advise you of your options.

If the lawyer recommends that you sue the sellers, make sure you understand the costs involved. In the course of suing, you're going to have to prove that they knew or should have known about the defect. What will prove it? If you can find the contractors who have fixed the problem previously, or if you can get a neighbor to confirm that there has been a problem for years.