A frend of mine is having trouble with a home he bought and has asked me if I know any good lawyers in Georgia

January 03, 2019, 10:26 AM

This is not for me. A friend purchased a home and is now finding out- during the seemingly unending rain fall around here- that the seller failed to disclose issues with the house. Specifically, tree roots have over the years elevated a corner of the slab and when it rains heavily, water accumulates in the garage. Per my friend, there's no way the seller couldn't have known this, since they had owned the house for many years.
I asked him about the inspector who examined the house and he says he thinks the guy simply missed it.

Anyway, he's looking for a lawyer. Any recommendations? Thanks.

January 03, 2019, 10:55 AM

ShneaSIG

I used to do a significant amount of litigation of that sort. Where is your friend located?

Your friend should get photos and videos of all the defects and damages, and look for any signs of repair or remediation. I won a few cases because evidence of the Seller's poor fixes/Band-Aids/ or outright cover-ups proved knowledge and intent to deceive.

Bids from contractors for fixing the leaks and restoring the house to proper shape will usually be sufficient proof of damages - but those contractors will usually need to be willing to serve as witnesses to make their bids good evidence.

I'd also call around to the local basement and foundation repair outfits, or even local concrete contractors, to see if they have any records of being called out to the house to look at the foundation by the prior homeowner.

One lynchpin that pushed a bad acting seller into settling favorably was getting the plumber who he called to bid on fixing a collapsed sewer lateral to testify for my clients.

January 03, 2019, 11:05 AM

V-Tail

quote:
Originally posted by ShneaSIG:

I used to do a significant amount of litigation of that sort. Where is your friend located?

quote:
Thread title:

A frend of mine is having trouble with a home he bought and has asked me if I know any good lawyers in Georgia

January 03, 2019, 11:13 AM

ShneaSIG

quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
quote:
Originally posted by ShneaSIG:

I used to do a significant amount of litigation of that sort. Where is your friend located?
quote:
Thread title:

A frend of mine is having trouble with a home he bought and has asked me if I know any good lawyers in Georgia

Georgia is a pretty big state. It doesn't make sense to hire lawyers for these sorts of cases that are outside of the local area, typically, because of the costs involved and this usually isn't an area where a plaintiff's counsel will work on a contingency fee, so it's more common for a plaintiff to pay out of pocket, so the plaintiff would be best to hire local, if possible, to keep costs down.

January 03, 2019, 11:25 AM

parabellum

quote:
Originally posted by ShneaSIG:
I used to do a significant amount of litigation of that sort. Where is your friend located?

Grayson, Georgia.

January 03, 2019, 11:31 AM

ShneaSIG

quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
quote:
Originally posted by ShneaSIG:
I used to do a significant amount of litigation of that sort. Where is your friend located?
Grayson, Georgia.

Emailing you, Para. I may have a lead in Gwinnett County that is useful.

January 03, 2019, 01:08 PM

220-9er

Hopefully ShneaSIG can help with a good lawyer.
I wouldn't give up on the inspector. My wife is a realtor and home inspectors may have an insurance policy for exactly this type of situation.
They should have referred your friend to an engineer if the problem was outside their area of expertise.
From the description it sounds like it should have been easy to spot this problem if it was that obvious and that's exactly what they are supposed to be able to see.

January 03, 2019, 01:59 PM

ShneaSIG

quote:
Originally posted by 220-9er:
Hopefully ShneaSIG can help with a good lawyer.
I wouldn't give up on the inspector. My wife is a realtor and home inspectors may have an insurance policy for exactly this type of situation.
They should have referred your friend to an engineer if the problem was outside their area of expertise.
From the description it sounds like it should have been easy to spot this problem if it was that obvious and that's exactly what they are supposed to be able to see.

It's worth investigating if there's a thread worth pulling on with the inspector. In my jurisdictions, some unfortunate case law that the inspectors usually seized on allowed them to limit their liability within their service contract to the homeowners to the price paid for their service. You'd see some harsh results, like a failure to identify cracking, collapsing, termite-damaged roof timbers requiring over $12,000 to repair because the inspector failed to look in the attic (when the report stated that he did), and all he had to do was refund his $300 fee.