We moved to Sussex County in July of this year and found our dream home, or so we thought, on Arvey Rd.in Delmar. It was a five year old colonial on 20 acres of ground. A Dream come true. NOT!
We settled on a contract amount and put down a LARGE deposit at the sellers request, "to let them know we were serious buyers". We were trying to settle in 30 days because the sellers had a contract on another house in Salisbury, MD.
We hired a home inspector and my husband met him at the house to go over the report.
Our home inspector spent three hours going over this house with my husband right beside him. The discusses each and every issue and a multi page report was written. There were 25 problems found on the home inspection. Most of which were minor and we were willing to over look. However, there were 20-30 cracked or broken tiles in the kitchen, Notched floor joist under the refrigerator which caused some sloping, and the worst was moisture and standing water in the crawl space.
I called around and got some quick verbal estimates on fixing these three problems, each of which was over $500. Then we decided we didn't want to buy the house and tried to withdrawl our contract. Our realtor called us and said the Mr. Bullock refused stating that we could not with draw because the wording on the home inspection addendum stated "If a problem over $500 exists then the seller can either fix the problem or if he/she refuses the fix it THEN we can get out" (paraphrased).
And he said the our home inspector and my husband were liars that none of these problems existed and they've hired their own inspector to come out and wanted my husband to come back again.
My husband went to meet with Mr. Bullock, there home inspector, and their realtor. Our realtor was either to busy or something but she couldn't make it. My husband pointed out the three major problems and there home inspector agreed that there were problems.
Mr. Bullock agreed to fix the three problems and stammered that the tile had started cracking when they moved in but they hoped it would stop. He also stated he had started fixing some of the smaller problems, when my husband heard he was doing the work he stated in front of everyone else that we only agree to have it fix if the work is done by a professional in the field. We didn't put it in writing, it was a gentlemans agreement.
The hired some neighbor who happened to be a contractor to install a sump pump and dig some trenches. The jack the joist up with a tiny little steel beam. And called and told us the problems were solved. The also reneged on fixing the tile because settlement was pushed back from Friday to Monday.
I went with our home inspector and another contractor for a reinspection. It was rainy that day, and I thought what a great day to see if it was truly fixed.
There was obivous signs of water leaking through the block in the foundation, the trenches were holding water, and there were several other places were standing water was present. The joist moisture content had jumped for a high of 32% at the first inspection to 65% this time. I was irate.
The Bullocks tried to cheap out and just throw a quick fix to the problem to get out. I called professional water proofers and received two separate quotes both exceeded $5000 to do the job correctly and guarnteed for life. We asked the Bullocks to put this amount to escrow to fix the problem and we would proceed to settlement. They refused stating the problem was fixed.
After visiting a lawyer, I learned that the wording in the contract didn't state who deemed when a problem was fixed. So we are not fighting over the LARGE deposit they requested we put down. They state we broke contract by not getting written estimates, we were never given the opportunity, the Bullocks immediately hired their friend down the street and started the work.
We asked to know up front who they had hired and they refused to tell us.
Buyer beware of the sellers and your realtor. We were completely ripped off now we are trying to get our deposit back to cover the cost of the survey, appraisal, title work, etc No one had our best interest at heart.
Callaway, Farnell and Moore is Seaford was the real estate agency. The won't take sides and have OUR money in and escrow account waiting for us to fight it out.
Meanwhile, we have no house and are out alot of our down payment. BEWARE! BEWARE!
Danielle
Milton, Delaware
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