New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Hello everyone!

We purchased this new home in January. It was considered in "mint++" condition and we have had problems after problems since the purchase. This is not a cheap house and located in Smithtown. We now hate living here and want to get out.

The recent issue we are having is we found mold seeping through the paint on the entire basement wall. It seems as though the previous owner PAINTED over the mold issue just to get a quick sale. The inspector was horrible and did not find any of the issues we are finding!!!

We just repaired the leaking extension problem in our back roof. We also had a cockroach issue, a major carpenter ant problem, dead tree on our front lawn, outside spigots for the hose don't work, shed has holes and are creating nice homes for outside animals, washer/dryer leaks water, freezer/frige have been repaired by us twice, back door won't close, outside deck has rotting spots, basement leaks during storms.... oh- and they left us with NO oil the first night and it created such an issue! Not to mention we froze our behinds off the first night!

I am just so depressed and really want to love this home being that it is my first house. We only called our lawyer about the leaking roof and he said there is nothing they can do about it because who is to say the leak didn't occur in Feb during the snow storms. I understand their point. But what about the painted over mold? I'm nervous about that and is creating so much stress for us!

Is there anyone you can recommend that could help me out? May it be a lawyer who would handle this type of thing and/or mold specialist? Or just point us in the right direction... Please!!!

Message edited 8/28/2009 10:37:21 AM.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Hi! I don't have any advise. I just wanted to say I'm sorry that you are going through this and I completely understand the situation you are in. Our's is a slightly different situation, but I feel trapped as well.

Good luck and best wishes!

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Write a letter to the inspection company, they should have found the leaks.. Thts what you paid them for... Whats their guarantee

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Can I be real honest? Welcome to home ownership. Yeah, it sucks that the house that you thought didn't have problems does, but even when you buy brand new construction you'll run into problems you didn't think were going to happen. My parents had it happen in their brand new home, too. Here's how I see it, if you want to sell the house and get your money back, you're going to have to fix those problems anyway. It stinks that your inspector didn't find those problems, but now that you know they're there, if you fix everything, will you feel better and like you'll have the house you thought you bought?

When we bought our house, we thought it was move in condition even though it needed updating. Boy were we wrong! We had to rip out our only full bathroom and replace the entire thing from the pipes up. We had no idea when we bought the house that we had to do that and the inspector did not catch it. We had no idea that our basement was going to completely flood every time it rained. We had no idea that the wallpaper had mold behind it or that all the electric was rigged with lamp wire.
You just never know what you're going to get into when you buy a house, but look at it as an investment. You need to take care of it in order for it to maintain its value nad add value to it. I'm sorry that you're so overwhelmed by the situation, but it happens to all of us, but you just fix it and move onto the next thing.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

I don't know if you legally have any recourse, but I would be on the phone with the inspector questioning why they didn't pick up on any of that.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Sue the inspection company. they should have found all those but the mold...

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

To be honest, i'm so ******--i'll sue everyone involved if I could win! this is def not my personality but i'm just that annoyed!

Do you know of a lawyer I could use?

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

The Mold problem, I don't think the inspector could have found anyway unless it was visible at the time of the inspection. There is a Mold inspection which is completely separate that would have to be conducted prior to closing.

The other issues, I honestly don't think there is anything you can do. I have heard stories like this, ever see the movie Money Pit? It's a funny movie, but it's scary how true it really is sometimes.

I would 100% contact your Lawyer either way and get advice before you start calling anyone else with threats. You want to know if you have any leg to stand on and what the right steps are that you can take. You might have to file something in small claims court against the Inspection Co. because I do agree that they are supposed to be professionals and should have caught some of these issues you are having.

Best of luck to you and sorry you are dealing with this

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

thanks. my lawyer for our home stinks so i prefer to look elsewhere. i actually just emailed teh lady you reccomended because i saw her ad. hopefully she'll write back.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

I'm going to agree with Rachel and say Welcome to Home Ownership.

However, if you want to sue someone, I would start with the inspector.

Unless the sellers disclosed to you that something was fine and it turned out they lied you can sue them, but if you don't have it in writing it will be hard to prove.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

I don't know if these stories make you feel better, but I am jumping on the giving you a warm welcome to home ownership!

There is nothing so frustrating as owning a home...

We moved in to electrical outlets not being grounded, flooding basement with mold behind the paneling, a giant sinkhole that appeared in our backyard b/c of an old cesspool, etc. etc. etc...

We just dealt with one issue at a time and eventually it gets better!



I feel your pain though!!

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

you guys did make me feel better, thanks! now i just have to deal with all of "this :)"

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

sorry you are dealing with this but yes unfortunately this is all part of owning a home...

but i do think you should contact the home inspection company so some of the issues.....

good luck

edit to add....
we also just bought a house and had 1 flood in the basement and no oil left in the tank, thankfully just used for hot water in the summer and we found out before we actually moved in...but the more we do on the house the more we find the owners and or builders skimped on the things, but we are not skimping on our repairs and we are making the house our home and i think it totally worth it!

Message edited 8/28/2009 12:26:58 PM.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

I have to agree with what others have said, you just never know what you are getting in to. We bought our house 2 months ago and it looked great. But as soon as you start spending time at home, you start seeing things you never saw before.

Like our bathroom, it has this really nice light fixture above the sink - too bad there is no switch so to turn it on you would have to screw in the light bulb and unscrew it to turn it off. How ridiculous is that?!? And in a new bathroom. Everytime my dad does any electrical work, like changing what seem to be the original 1939 outlets, he curses the homeowners for making huge holes, stripping screws, using the wrong screws, etc, etc. There is a ton of paint buildup on what is beautiful moulding around the windows and we couldn't find similar moulding so we had to suck it up and paint over it. When I sue my toaster oven in thye kitchen the power strip resets for whatever reason.

Just take it one day at a time and one repair at a time. You loved something about the house so just hold on to that and keep going. But do consult a lawyer in case you have legal recourse. But don't let this ruin homeownership, make the house "home."

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

for you!
our situation isn't as bad as yours, but we are constantly finding things wrong w/ the house that the inspector didn't catch or that would have been impossible for him to have found.

yes, homeownership is a b!tch...

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

I agree with the "welcome to home ownership" train of thought. Things happen in every house. Our cesspool collapsed the day after we closed! So I've got sympathy. But there will be problems with any house you own. My IL bought a brand new house on a canal and the foundation started crumbling immediately. Don't move- it will happen anywhere you live!

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

ATTY:

STOCK & CARR, 516-747-2478; 88 2ND AVE, MINEOLA

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Posted by evnme

for you!
our situation isn't as bad as yours, but we are constantly finding things wrong w/ the house that the inspector didn't catch or that would have been impossible for him to have found.

yes, homeownership is a b!tch...

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Message edited 8/28/2009 3:29:42 PM.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

You really have no legal basis for the mold. It wasn't brought up at inspection. It wasn't brought up at closing. It wasn't in the contract to have it fixed.

There is a little $500 "disclosure" transaction that changes hands at closing. The seller has the right at closing to pay the buyer $500 dollars, and that pretty much means the seller doesn't have to disclose any "hidden" issues with the house. It basically releases liability (which is why the inspection is so important).

99 times out of 100, the seller just pays the $500 to the buyer because frankly, why wouldn't you? This would be on your HUD-1 statement.

Also as far as going after the inspection company goes, no real legal basis there either. Most inspection companies have clauses in their agreement that pretty much say "if they can't see the problem, they can't detect it or notify you of it, or in essence be responsible for that."

Sorry it suks, but those are the joys of homeownership like some of the PPs said.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Did your REA buy you a Home Warranty? Maybe some of these things will be covered?

Good luck. Fix what you can. You are not trapped. Things will get better.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

I agree! We bought our house in 2004 and we are still repairing things the original homeowners did.

We have refinished all floors
Dealt with the mold issues under the sills of all windows-- because they used regular air conditioners but we have casement windows and the water used to leak between the walls.

We have found countless outlets that are upside down.

The switch to turn on our half bath is not in the bathroom but in the kitchen.

All the walls we thought that were painted white were actually white wall paper

Oh the one bathroom that they 'fixed up' the tile was not laid correctly and started lifting, the tub surround was replaced with the wrong caulking.


They built this house and replaced NOTHING except the tile in the bathroom and tub surround.

We have replaced the furnace
Refinished all floors
Replaced all appliances except the dryer
Replaced all windows
Drained and treated the cesspool and the washing machine cesspool.
Replaced about 50 of the doors and found that all knobs were cut at the wrong height which resulted in issues with the new storm door and the old front door interlocking and being locking in or being locked out of the house. All the mouldings in the house are just placed in nail holes but not actually attached to the walls. Every time I sweep the kitchen floor certain moulding come off immediately.
We had to replace the chimney since it was never clean and maintained.
We have discovered that we get leaks in our basement from a pipe and from a wall where there was a window that they chose to remove and never sealed properly.

Every wall in this house is a mess and quite honestly needs to be taken down to the studs and resheetrocked but that's not in the cards right now

oh and the best--- where moulding around the kitchen cabinets broke they reattached it with---- FUNTAK. So you will see what looks like blue gum in places in my kitchen

Sadly that is what being a homeowner is all about.

My dh says daily how he wants to go back to an apartment or condo. We do as much as we can a year and then take a break and move onto the next thing.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

We also found mold in our house after we bought it. The inspector never saw it. It's fairly easy (although a little pricey) to remove. The first step is to get it tested - I don't remember who we used, but there are a lot of companies out there who do it.

We have been in our house almost 6 years and have done TONS of renovations. Just this month alone I had to get a leak fixed, a lock fixed, change out 2 lights that weren't working, and my alarm panel blew from a power surge. it's never ending....but there is still a lot of joy for me here. I hope you can find some joy in your home and know that the repairs are just par for the course.

Re: New home and we are MISERABLE...now what? I need advice!

Tradewinds Environmental

895 Waverly Ave
Holtsville, NY 11742-1109

(631) 435-8900?

These people can help you remove your mold.