Fraud suit still possible just not winnable

Home buyers can sue for any reason, but they don't stand much chance of winning the lawsuit if they OK'd the deal after approving the seller's disclosure statement.

Q. My wife and I purchased our home two years ago, and the sellers provided a typical defect-disclosure form. There was nothing in the form that made us worry, so we closed the deal. The roof in our living room recently began leaking, and two different contractors have told us that we need to replace the entire roof at a cost of about $16,000. Is it too late to sue the sellers for fraud?

A. No, it's not too late to sue the sellers for fraud -- but I doubt that you would win the lawsuit.

In most states, the statute of limitations for fraud ranges from three to seven years, and the clock starts ticking only after the alleged fraud was discovered. So, if Seller Smith sold the Brooklyn Bridge a century ago to Buyer Baker, and Baker only now found that Smith had no legal right to sell it, Baker would likely have at least a few more years to file a lawsuit for the deceit.

Your situation is different. You and your spouse closed the transaction two years ago, after admittedly getting a disclosure form from the seller that didn't "worry" you about potential problems.

Though you still have the right to file a lawsuit, a judge would probably rule against you because the seller provided a disclosure form and apparently didn't have any reason to believe that the roof might leak two years after you moved in. No deceit or fraud seems to be involved, so the new leak in your roof is basically just "wear and tear," for which the seller cannot be held liable. Consult a real estate attorney for more advice.

Q. What makes some of the doors in my home "stick"? Is there a way to fix this problem?

A. Many doors, especially those made of wood, expand and contract as the weather changes. Doors often swell when the air has a lot of moisture in it, which can create that annoying sticking that makes it hard to properly open or close them.

Sticking can also be caused by other factors, such as a large amount of moisture in the soil beneath the home or the settling that often occurs as a home ages.

There are a couple of steps you can take to help mitigate the problem. One is to sand and then repaint the doors, making sure to cover the top, bottom, hinge side and latch side as well as the door's front and back. Doing so can help protect the entire door from absorbing excess moisture.

If your home has a crawl space, you should also make sure that it's properly ventilated to help keep the dirt underneath dry. Also make sure that the soil itself is sloped so that water drains away from the home's foundation instead of toward it: It will not only help the doors from absorbing excess moisture but can also slow the settling process.

Q. You recently wrote that the nationwide default rate is about 3 percent. But which individual cities have the highest foreclosure rate? Which ones have the lowest?

A. Detroit -- a wonderful city that's plagued with high unemployment and falling home prices -- has the dubious distinction of being the "foreclosure capital" of the United States. Nearly 5 percent of homes in the area were in some stage of foreclosure last year, according to a new report by RealtyTrac, the California-based company that compiles foreclosure statistics for communities across the nation.

Unlike Detroit, the next two cities at the top of the foreclosure list -- Stockton, Calif., and Las Vegas -- still have fairly stable economies. The trouble is that home values in both of those areas rose so quickly in the earlier part of this decade that many local workers were eventually priced out of the market, while many others who purchased a house in the past year or two have defaulted because they see no reason to keep paying their mortgage when overall prices in their respective cities are falling at the rate of hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month.

In all, California is home to six of the 20 major metropolitan cities that RealtyTrac says have the highest foreclosure rates. Ohio has four, followed by Florida (including Miami and Fort Lauderdale) with three.

The lowest foreclosure rates in the nation's 100 largest metro areas were found in Greenville, S.C., and Syracuse, N.Y. Barely 1 percent of mortgages in those areas were in default at the start of this year, thanks largely to their diversified economies that generate enough jobs to keep their housing markets humming.

Foreclosures in Greenville's market are also low because a growing number of retirees are moving into the area, which in turn has kept prices rising for young and old buyers alike. And since many retirees are moving to the Carolinas after selling their equity-rich homes in the North, they can often afford to pay "all cash" for their new property -- thus eliminating the need for a mortgage at all.

© 2008, Cowles Syndicate Inc.