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- 2004-12-11
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To Worm:
I totally understand your frustration but in current situation it's of your best interest to try to stay positive:
First, even with this leaking issue, you may still have made the right decision purchasing this house. Don't listen to those comments that since you already started to worry about the integrity of this house, you should totally give it up. No house (especially old house) can be free from issues so even if you thought you bought a perfect house, you would still start to experience issues (even serious ones) after you move in. Do you always have to regret your purchasing decision when those issues come out? Not necessarily! After all, the house may still have the good location, meet your family needs, and (even with all those issues and repair costs) still remains a good investment in the long run.
Second, it's actually much better for you to be able to identify this leaking issue before closing, so most (if not the total) cost of it repair remains the responsibility of the previous owner. Imagine if this leaking incident happens, or is only identified AFTER you move in, then you will have to pay to fix the damage to both your own house and your neighbour! Consider your self lucky because I've heard used house buyers start to experience serious leaking issues (flooding basement, dripping water from upper floor washroom, etc.) several months after they move in.
Third, although in order not to complicate the situation and slow down the selling process, the owner may chose not to mention the incident to you, or proactively inspect his house for possible leaks after that "leaking to neighbour" incident, he could still be a person whose clear promises you can trust. Will he try to collaborate with the repairing contractor to give you a wrong report which covers up the severity of leaking? Or will he break the promise that he will pay for the repair within one year after the closing? I doubt them. As your lawyer already pointed out, legally it's NOT his responsibility to disclaim that incident to you (because it seemed only impact his neighbour then), and whether he "should have known" that incident would affect his own house needs to be argued (after all, people may very well choose to remain passive and "pray for good" in similar situations).
Please do not become "more suspicious" against the owner because he refuses to let you inspect the working ground (you kept mentioning it so I assume that's what you dislike most now)..Trust me, most local people would refuse your request in similar situations. And frankly I don't quite understand why you want to do that? Are you the leaking expert yourself? What do you plan to do with your own observations? In Canada most people and especially the court TRUST professionals (until evidence shows that they are either unqualified or dishonest), so to them it's hard to understand why you refuse to trust a written report from the contractor (who after all could be held legally responsible for that report).
From my objective point of view, the owner seemed to be somewhat cooperative in allowing you to postpone the closing, You would feel much better and become more confident about your house closing if you now simply give the owner more "benefit of doubt" on what he is doing to fix the house and what he promised to help after the closing. Trust the owner and his contractor one more time won't actually hurt you (since you can still hold them legally accountable after closing), but will certainly make you less worried and stay positive.
integrity of house 是什么东东?