X-POST: For those of you who have purchased a home...

DH and I are currently in contract with my our first home and we are flying blind. On Friday our attorney e-mailed us asking if we were aware of a 40 foot setback on the property. Of course, we weren't. We're really concerned about this because its a corner property and we want to extend the fence out to make a bigger back yard. If the setback affects this portion of the property- it will no longer work for us and they already cashed our deposit check. We were told that they are waiting on a survey and that they didn't have any additional details.


Fast forward to today. I get another email from my attorney:

A- "The title company tried but cannot locate a survey for the property.
In order for you to get full title insurance we strongly recommend that you get a new survey, the cost of which is $650. Can we go ahead and tell title company to proceed?"

Me- Quite frankly Agent said she was requesting a survey and I find it hard to believe that the sellers didn't know about a property line issue. I feel like this should be their responsibility. They need to prove to us where the lines are.

A- It doesn't work that way. The property line issue is not the only reason you need it- you need it to be fully insured so please let me know if its yes or no. It takes a few weeks. If you go without it, you will need to sign a waiver assuming the risks. Thanks

Am I crazy for being furious about this? I've spoken to several people at work and they agree that because of the issue with the property it should be the sellers responsibility to have it done. Additionally- why am I finding out now, AFTER there is a problem that this needs to be done? Shouldn't I have been told that I needed a survey before?

If you made it this far, thank you. I know this was long and ranty- I just need to know if I'm out of line here...

X-POST: For those of you who have purchased a home...

I had to pay for a new survey. I'm a corner lot. Unfortunately home buying has hundreds of hidden costs. The survey is needed for homeowner insurance which would be your responsibility. You can try and fight to get them to pay half due to property line... not sure how much luck you will have. Try and relax! The buying, closing and and homeownership is stressful!

X-POST: For those of you who have purchased a home...

You are responsible for paying for the new survey - like the attorney said - the line issue is not the main reason for having one.

Also, keep in mind that in a lot of towns, corner lots can NOT extend their fences. it has to be a certain about of feet away from the street. We are in the process of putting in a pool and the pool company was just telling us how many more restrictions corner lots have on pools and fences.

Re: X-POST: For those of you who have purchased a home...

Unfortunately, NY is a buyer beware/caveat emptor state in terms of real estate laws.

This means, in layman's terms, that the buyer has to do their due diligence on everything, and verify everything. Period. I mean, a selelr can't intentionally deceive the buyer, but other than that, it's on the buyer to do their homework (of course, with the assistance of an attorney, and really, a good buyer's agent can be invaluable in providing guidance).

As far as the survey, it's customary that the buyer orders/pays for the survey if they want it and an acceptable one isn't available. Often sellers don't have one, or it's too old to use. The seller is not obligated to provide one. If the buyer can't get one from the seller, and the buyer wants one (and any competent attorney will want you to get one, aside from potential lender requirements), then the buyer has to pay for a new one.

Your down payment that was made on contract is not "cashed" by the seller, it's held in an attorney escrow account until closing by the seller's attorney.

Re: X-POST: For those of you who have purchased a home...

before i purchased my house, we were in contract on another house, which had a lot of work to be done. We wrote this work into the contract. They agreed. Upon closing day and final walk through, we found other hidden issues as well as NONE of the work had been done. This was quite expensive work-- pool work, plumbing, leaks.I dont remember all the details (11years ago).

The day of the walk through, owner of the house also had us stand on the lawn for at least 30 mins with our real estate AND his while he pitched a fit and wouldn't let anyone in the house.

So, we walked away from the closing table.

My point / relation to your story: We had to go to court to get our money back from escrow and only got part of it because the judge felt that was fair because the family had already put a deposit on an apartment.

You really have to watch out for the sellers. I would never again go into a contract with a family who was sketchy, no matter how awesome the house.

The family went into foreclosure within a year or so of this happening, and someone else snatched up the house and made it look 100x better.