Hi,

I recently brought a house, a month ago and was represeted by a dual agent, who opened the escrow.

I know very little about all the procedures. However, the agent ordered a termite inspection on my behalf asked them to call out all section-1 items and the seller to pay for, which they did.

The seller failed to remove his personal belongings weeks past the COE. So, no walk through inspection was completed or signed off.

Later, I discovered serious infestation, which was camaflauged by sellers belongings removed after COE. When inquired, the termite inspector told me that the seller and his agent asked him not to include this area in his report. The inspector now estimated the cost of section-1 for this areas as $30K after the second report, which is given after COE upon my request for no charge (as I already paid before).

The escrow company did not withhold any funds, to be paid after the walk through inspection is signed-off. Apparently the dual agent did not give these instructions to escrow officer.

This situation was brought to the attention of escrow officer, agent and seller. I am being ignored with no communication from agent or seller.

Question:
Is it normal to close an escrow without a walk-through inspection signed-off without with holding any funds?

Is it normal for a termite inspector to take instruction from a seller, when buyer orderded and paid for the termite inspection?

Who is responsible to make sure this did not happen?

What is it that I could have done to avoid it?

mm

An agent acting on behalf of both the buyer and seller walks a thin line, but ALWAYS has a fiduciary responsibilty to the SELLER. Your interest are secondary. The precise nature of a dual representation should have been disclosed. While its legal, I would never allow it. If the realtor had any knowledge of insect damage, or requested that a part of the property be excluded from inspection, he/she may be liable for damages you incurred. The extent of the damage suggests that this problem would not have been unknown to the seller. Their failure to disclose a material fact (expensive repair / insect infestation leaves them liable.

Unfortunately, you now need a real estate attorney. DO NOT try to deal directly with the realtor or title company at this point. This is no longer a real estate transaction, this is a lawsuit. You are being ignored by all these people because the next logical step is a lawsuit, and none of these guys wants say anything that could further compromise their position or involve them as knowing participants in this fraud /deception, that left you holding the bag.

You will most likely recover all the costs of repair and some legal fees. But quit wasting time. Get a referral to an attorney today.

All parties have signed the binding arbitration clause.

How will this pay out?

I meant: How will that play out?

Well, what can I say, the surprises never stopped. After the first rains of the season, I noticed 12" of standing water in my crawl space. Talking to neighbors, other houses in my line have similar problems and some have done expensive work of french drains+vapour barriers.

In one rain seasons, I had to pump out water more than 6 times. The furnace in winter was picking up air from the crawl-space and the whole house started smelling muddy.

Apparently this has been going on for a long time and my seller was apparently aware of it and discussed with his neighbors in the past to figure out how to remedy this problem. Looks like he had amnesia when he sold me the house in year which had little rains and a dry crawl space.

sm