What Seller Should Tell Buyer?

Q: What should the Seller tell about any problems with the house to the Buyer? In my case, I bought my townhome 2 years back. A year back, I found out the we needed all the roof's to be fixed to handle a FRT plywood problem. Yesterday, when I attended the homeowners association, I found out that this problem has been known for about 3-4 years (atleast a year or two before I bought it). I now have to pay extra (Anywhere from $1200-$2500) to have the roof fixed. Should the previous owner have informed me about this? Is he liable for a part of the payment? This is in New Jersey. I would appreciate any help.

A: -I don't know why a townhouse would be different than any other house. I think failure to disclose problems is illegal and you can go back to the seller for damages. I recommend talking to a real estate lawyer as state laws may differ. The hard part (usually) is proving the previous owner had knowledge of the problem.

Sounds like you might have the hard part beat. I'm fairly certain the seller would have had to sign a disclosure statement listing any known problems, and even if you purchased the property AS IS you may have recourse if the seller did not disclose. -In California all material facts must be disclosed. It could be different in New Jersey. When you purchased you probably had to initial a whole bunch of documents to indicate that you read them. I suggest you take another look to see if the problem really did get disclosed in the homeowners association documents. Then, regardless of what you find in your paperwork, see a real estate attorney to see where you stand legally.