No matter if you are buying a home or selling a home you should be familiar with property disclosures and material defects. There a couple rules you can follow to make sure you are fully informed.
Rule #1 Material defects should be disclosed.
As a seller if you don't disclose material defects you can open yourself to a lawsuit from the buyer. An example of an material defect is the seller fraudulently obtaining flood insurance and misrepresents the amount of the premium.
Rule #2 - All material defects may not been disclosed.
If the seller is unaware of a defect then they can't disclose to you. In addition, the seller may not think to disclose to the buyer a defect that is already known to the buyer or one that is readily observable.
Rule #3: Seller only has to disclose not repair.
The seller only needs to disclose to you the defect. This is usually done on the property disclosure. They do not have to make the repair (unless they are contractually obligated to do the repair).
Please note this is not legal advice. Any legal questions should be presented to an attorney.
Source: : http://www.frankelrealtygroup.com/rea...
