Legal Question - Real Estate related

[Saytur]

My house is sinking. Slowly, but it's sinking. Insurance company says' it's an act of god but I did get them to pay for a subsurface evaluation. The company that did the eval says they can't find a specific problem but their professional opinion is that the ground was not properly prepared, and the floating slab (no footer) was probably a bad idea.

The house is about 22 years old now, my neighbors' house is older and hasn't moved at all. Quite a few homes in my neighborhood have though (20 or more?), I'm guessing they were put in by the same builder. The entire city was planned by one developer who still has a hand in everything. If there is no statute of limitations, I'm concerned about getting stonewall'd trying to Erin Brockavitch the bastards.

Anyone have any experience in this sort of thing?

 

[Lancecastor]

Sounds like you're screwed unless there were warranties that survived the closing with the previous owner. Ask the lawyer who conducted your transaction about that.

The other possibility is to prove gross negligence/warranty of fitness in the developer/builder....but as you're not the original owner, you have no contractual relationship to them and they likely have no duty or liability to you unless you can prove they knew a house shouldn't have been built there in the first place and actively hid the reasons from the original builder/owner, or they from you.

Your local and state laws might create some legislative or over-riding protection or possibility for recovery if , for example, there was a state-regulated mining operation under your home or a registered/known aquifer.

But you sound, at first blush, shit out of luck.

Start with the lawyer who did your transaction. Get a written opinion from him/her along with a complete copy of your file.

Then get a second opinion from a litigation lawyer who specializes in real estate/environmental negiligence.

Good luck.

Lance

 

[Saytur]

I'm in South Florida so everythings built over an aquifer. I was guessing (in all my legal ignorance) that the city, who was obligated to insure the ground treatment prior to construction was adequate, may have some liability. They sold the permits and carried out the inspections. Even though it was the builder that did the shoddy work, the city approved it. I don't see why it would be relevant that I'm not the first owner from that angle.

 

[Weird Harold]

I don't see why it would be relevant that I'm not the first owner from that angle.

Unles you can show that the person who sold you the house concealed a known fault, being a second owner essentially means you bought the house "as is."

As far as the City's liability, again you'll need o prove that the house did not meet building codes as they existed at the time of construction and the City inspector ignored the faults.

I find it hard to believe that even a corrupt inspector would ignore the lack of footings if they were required by the building codes at the time the house was built.

 

[Saytur]

Oh I'm fairly certain floating slab construction was legal when the house was built, my only point on that matter was that it was "ill advised", South Florida being all sandy loam ... "cheap" way to go I'm sure.

My tenuous position is based on the statement from the company that did the evaluation, something to the effect of "our professional opinion is that the ground was not properly prepared for construction."

The city was responsible for seeing that the ground was properly prepared.