the roof is leaking in my new house, who's responsible?

 Hi, i'm just having a hard time figuring out who is responsible for the
leaky roof. I really hope someone can help me on this.
The situation is like this...

We bought a house (about 7 years old) in Surrey, BC, and moved in about
4 weeks ago(at the end of October).
We did a house inspection(at the end of August) in the process of the
home purchase, turned out to be fine.
But the problem occured after it started to rain in this area.
The roof is now leaking, and about 3-4 feet of the molding along the
bottom of the master room is swelled and wet.
The carpet near that part is soaking wet too.
So, we called the inspector again. The inspector said the vinyl
underneath the roof is probably ripped or something that.
And he was like ...........it's not like the roof is rotten or broken
somewhere, that's why he couldn't catch that, and no one can find it.

Our realtor says it's the inspectors responsibility.
But the inspector says no one is able to catch that kind of problem
because the roof seemed fine from the outside and it wasn't leaking
when he did the inspection.(it wasn't rainy, that's why!)

The realtor said we could sue the inspector, but we really don't want
to take that kind of action.
I am really lost and don't know what to do and who to talk to. Who's
really responsible here? Any idea?
Any help would be appreciated.

   moon.kj@gmail.com wrote:


At the moment, it is your responsibility.  Now that you know about
the problem, it is your duty to get it fixed ASAP so no more
damage happens.  Then, once it is fixed, then you can worry about
any past responsibility.

As far as the past goes, the inspector is likely off the hook.
No inspector is going to promise that they will find every
possible defect.  But if it was a glaring mistake, then you
may have a case.

You may also have a case against the former owner if they
knew about the problem and failed to disclose it.  The hard
part is that you may have to prove that they did in fact
know about the problem.

Some realtors push used home warranties.  If you bought one,
the warranty company might take care of it.  In other cases,
your home owners insurance might take care of it.

-john-

--
======================================================================
John A. Weeks III           952-432-2708            john@johnweeks.com
Newave Communications                         http://www.johnweeks.com
======================================================================

 

It appears you did not know leaky roofs on new
houses were much in the news in BC about 10 years
ago --- see back issues of newspapers.  It is likely
the Sun or  the  Province still has a reporter specially
assigned to this topic whom you could consult.


In Ontario, the liability of a private house inspector is
limited to his fee, i.e. you can get your money back if
his inspection was obviously incompetent, but the
inspector is not liable for the cost of repairs he failed
to report.

Since your problem is shared with thousands of other
BC house owners, you should identify their leaky
roof groups (cf. class actions suing for redress) and
see what you can learn.   Municipal or provincial
politicians probably know about these groups.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

 Thanks John and Don for your opinion.
I decided to just let it go. It seems like the more i try to find who's
fault it is, the more I ruin other ppl's feelings as well as ours.. I
guess my case is one of those "things just happen" cases like some ppl
said.
Just hoping I don't end up with an invoice of a large amount money.

 On 15 Nov 2006 18:33:03 -0800, someone wrote:


Uhh yeah pal, I have an idea.  YOU ARE.

Don't you know what BOUGHT A HOUSE means?

It's YOUR house now.


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.