Mandatory Real Estate Disclosures a House Seller Must Make to the Buyer
Listing your home on the market is an automatic invitation to prospective clients to come inspect the house before making up their minds to purchase. One common practice among house sellers is to polish, sorry, paint, a house before placing it on the market. The fresh paint gives everyone who sees the house the impression that all is perfect. However, while this is a tactic to attract buyers, it could very well be a tactic to cover up the deformities in the house.
Prospective buyers upon taking up the inspection invitation, might not be able to, at the surface, discover any problem with the house. Hiring an expert to conduct a house survey in this regard is instructive.
What Are Real Estate Disclosures?
Most states have a form for the seller to fill, detailing all relevant and seemingly irrelevant information about the property. This includes all problems or faults in any part of the property. Some potential disclosures include: leaking roof, broken stairs, cracked walls, leaking pipes, unauthorized expansion or addition to the house, etc.
Disclosures give the buyer ample information about all at should be known about the house, therefore eliminating surprises. While the seller is protected from any future legal action on the condition of the house, so long as it was disclosed before closing sale.
Mandatory Disclosures
Partial disclosure is not acceptable, full and truthful disclosure is expected of the seller. Where there is doubt as to whether a particular information is worth disclosing, it is safer to err on the side of caution by making the disclosure, as liability for failure to disclose could be as much as 10 years. In addition, these disclosures are to be in writing, usually by just answering ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to several dozens of documents, and then signing them off.
Below are mandatory disclosures someone who needs to sell a house in San Diego must make. Ownership history of the house since it was built to the present time. This information helps determine the seller has the right to grant title in the property to the buyer. All renovations or additions (and even subtractions) done to the house should be disclosed, especially where such improvements were not approved or done without required permits.
Other kinds of disclosures include neighborhood security level, neighborhood nuisances, pet and termite problems, leaking roof, nature of title, pending lawsuit involving the property, mortgage, etc. Disclosure must include both obvious and not so obvious faults with the house. To ensure every possibility has been captured, hiring a professional to carry out a survey would ensure no stone is left unturned.
