Seller not obligated to make repairs
Q. My husband and I signed a contract to buy a house a couple weeks ago. We did a home inspection and the inspector stated in his report that certain parts of the plumbing and electrical were improper and unsafe. We asked that the seller either repair these things or give us a credit for the repair. The seller responded by telling us he was going to do nothing and we should either take it or leave it. We can understand if we wished to have him repair a broken window or some rotted wood and he refused, but these things affect the safety of the people living in the house. How can he refuse to fix them?
A. As a general rule, the seller has no duty to repair anything cited by your home inspector. The seller's only duty is to disclose to you any defects he is aware of at the property.
Of course, through your home inspection and subsequent correspondence, the seller is now aware of these defects. In the event your deal should fall through, he would be legally required to disclose these defects to any future prospective purchasers. Accordingly, you should argue that he might as well deal with you as the issue is not going to go away.
Q. We had our home listed with a Realtor for approximately nine months. We did not receive on offer. It seemed to us the Realtor lost interest in our listing after a few months and we hardly ever heard from her. I don't think the home was shown once during the last three months of the listing. We tried to sell the house ourselves for about three weeks before we signed with the Realtor. We had a sign in front of the house and ran some ads in the paper.
About a month ago, we sent her a letter telling her we were canceling the listing. The listing agreement stated that after six months, either party could cancel the listing upon 30 days written notice.
A couple days ago, a man came by the house that had come by while we were trying to sell the house ourselves. He seems very interested.
What are our obligations to the Realtor? The listing agreement talks about the Realtor being entitled to a commission for a period of time after the listing is cancelled if someone buys the house. We need to know if we will owe a commission as this will affect the price we will be willing to sell the house for.
A. You need to have the listing agreement reviewed by an attorney to determine your obligations under the agreement. From my experience with listing agreements, a common provision is that if the listing is terminated and someone then purchases the property (within a certain period of time after the listing is terminated) who first came in contact with the property through the efforts of the Realtor, a commission is due.
Presuming you could establish that your purchaser first came in contact with your property through your advertising efforts or otherwise (but not through the efforts of the Realtor) and the language in the listing agreement is similar to the above, no commission would be due.