Richard Silver

Toronto Real Estate: A Home Inspection Story Part 4

Years ago a consumer bought one of my listings, and after living there for 10 years and having children, he decided to finish the basement as a bedroom and playroom for his children. A few years later he decided to sell it and a pre-listing inspection was done and then the new buyer decided to do another one as part of the Purchase. After the sale was completed it was found that there was dampness in the basement and the Buyer felt that the Seller had known.

Knowing that there was dampness, why would the seller have finished the basement and put his children down there to sleep and play. It did not make sense and the house had been there for over 100 years with no dampness problems. Sometimes “Shit happens”, the water table moves or the next door neighbors downspouts re rout.

Sadly the Buyer will always assume I was complicit and knew there was dampness. I did not.

1. Brick basements were never meant to be finished, Brick is porous and if you plan to finish one, call a specialist.
2. The City of Toronto  has all sorts of underground rivers and streams…construction up the block from you can cause a rerouting of dampness.
3. Millions of years ago St. Clair Avenue  was probably a beach head, South of St. Clair is very sandy, not clay and City water flows down from there to the lake.
4. Again, “shit happens”. I have had to replace all the drains under my house at a huge cost, but I chose to live on a street with huge trees that I love. Did I say “shit happens”?

Do not assume that the Realtor has been made aware of the issues. Yes, sometimes they are complicit or feel that it may not affect the value of the property and therefore is not pertinent. My rule has always been that you should disclose everything that you know about the property. Any personal or financial issues that the seller or Buyer may be going through are not part of any discussion to be had with either party however.

If you have proof that the listing Realtor was complicit or did not do their due diligence, please contact their Real Estate  Broker. If not successful, contact the Real Estate Council of Ontario , our regulator.

For More Information:

Toronto Real Estate: The Reality of Home Inspections Part 1

Toronto Real Estate: The Reality of Home Inspections Part 2

Toronto Real Estate: Home Inspections Part 3

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Around TORONTO, Buying in Toronto, Real Estate, Selling in Toronto, Toronto. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. Latif Nizamani said at January 19th, 2010 at 6:12 pm

   Excellent article. Would you like to share links? If so please let me know. Thanks.

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