The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Can anyone recommend a real estate attorney who could advise on how to proceed with my situation? (see below)

Purchased a house in June 2010 and since then have slowly discovered the following things:

• Discovered sinking floor in living room (after we pulled carpet up to find a false floor used to make the floor look level)
• Discovered sinking floor in foyer / six piers installed to stabilize
• Discovered Leaking furnace which over time caused foundation issues (see above)
• Discovered faulty construction in garage attic (large beams showing massive splits, ceiling is falling down)
• Discovered faulty/inadequate air ducts in crawl space (disconnected ducts/wrong type of ducting installed)
• Discovered leaking ceiling in living room and paid for black mold removal / water stains initially covered up by paint
• Discovered covered up water damage in kitchen (stains covered by paint)

Thoughts? Do we have any statutes of limitations to deal with?

I would want to talk to my EMP company to find out why they didn't alert me to those problems during inspection and find out what their liability might be. I also would want to chat with my Realtor@ if you used one. They have to disclose. Without that professional inspection it seems caveat emptor might apply. Paint may be an effort to hide leaking ceilings but hardly amounts to fraud and most everything else you mentioned is easily identified. Piers are hard to hide, cracking beams are visible etc

Did you buy a home on a hillside? As in Gilcrease or Reservoir Hill?

It is in the Max Campbell Addition. We did use a realtor and did have inspections but the inspections failed to find all of the aforementioned items.

Painting over a water leak to cover up a problem or building a false floor to hide a 3 inch drop in the floor because your chimney is pulling the house down AND not disclosing it to the buyer is illegal and constitutes negligence and/or breach of oral and written contract under full disclosure.

I'm just unaware of what the limitations are for seeking damages for said negligence as we have been finding these issues one-by-one since we've bought the place.

Statute of limitations for fraud is 2 years from the discovery of the fraud and 5 years for breach of a written contract.

Thanks for clarifying.  Any suggestions on a good real estate attorney?

Is this the 31st/41st and Yale area addition?  If is is, that's kinda surprising...that's a pretty old neighborhood...thought that would have settled by now.

I got nothing on the lawyer thing...sorry!

I sold real estate for several years. Those things are pretty easily identified in a professional inspection. Even the Realtor@ could have found them. You should sue them all. Any good lawyer can do the deed. You don't need a real estate lawyer for fraud.

I'd go after the inspection company.

Was this a reputable inspection company or your agent's brother?

Painting over old water damage could be considered normal in preparation for a sale. It would be very hard to prove how bad the water damage was when they painted it. I would say the realtor and inspector are most to blame. It isn't illegal to sell a crappy house.

I assume it was not a new home. Here's the beginning statute governing the Oklahoma Residential Property Condition Disclosure Act.

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=86136

Here's the statute prescribing legal duties of realtor:

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=86141

Liability of seller:

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=86140

Here the remedial statute:

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=435891

I have defended about 25 of these lawsuits, and brought several for violations of this as well as other claims. As for SOL, apart from those in 60 O.S.  Section 837 there is a discovery rule available. Generally, here is the SOL:

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=439150

I need to think about an attorney to refer you.