NONDISCLOSURE ARTICLES
Recourse for Unknown Tenants
Question: We recently purchased an investment home in the San Tan Valley for $425,000 cash. When our real estate agent showed us the home, this home had some furniture in the living room and in two of the bedrooms. Our real estate agent said that he thought that was furniture left behind by the last owner. Two days later we signed the purchase contract to buy the home. After escrow closed, and we had the keys, we went to the home with two contractors to start the repairs to the home. To our surprise, there was a family of four…
Read More >>
Listing Agent Has to Disclose Family Relationship With Buyer
Question: We listed our North Phoenix home with our neighbor who is a real estate agent and also a Realtor. The next day we accepted an offer to purchase our home from a Limited Liability Company (“LLC”) buyer. This LLC buyer planned to remodel our home, and then “flip” our home to another buyer. Our Realtor recently said that this LLC buyer, however, may now not be able to buy our home because of problems getting a short-term remodeling loan from a hard money lender. While playing golf my husband recently learned from another neighbor that our Realtor’s brother is…
Read More >>
Seller Didn’t Disclose the Short-Term Rental Next Door
Question: In the purchase contract for the sale of our Chandler home, there is a provision giving the right for a 10-day inspection. The purchase contract also said that the sale was “as is,” and “no repairs.” After the 10-day inspection period, the buyer deposited $35,000 earnest money with the escrow company. The 10-day inspection period expired, and the buyer said nothing about cancellation. A week later the buyer wants to cancel the contract and get their $35,000 earnest money back because the buyer learned that there is a short-term rental (“STR”) home next door. The buyer says that we…
Read More >>
Mediation Required Before Litigation
Question: Before we bought our $800,000 Peoria home last summer, we only looked at the home during the day. We were never told by the seller that next door to our Peoria home was a short-term rental home and that there would be loud parties almost every night. When we complained to the owner of this short-term rental home, he just laughed at us and hung up the phone. We now want to sell our Peoria home and buy a home in Glendale that is in an HOA community that prohibits short-term rentals. Our real estate agent says, however, that…
Read More >>
Can Professional Negligence Be Waived In Advance?
Question: Three months after we closed escrow on our Peoria home, we discovered major leaks in the bathroom plumbing. One of our neighbors said that two prior buyers of our home had cancelled the purchase contracts when they discovered these water leaks. When we contacted the real estate agent who represented both the seller and us in this transaction, she said that she had no liability because we agreed in the purchase contract to release her from any liability. Is she correct that she has no liability because of this release? Answer: Probably not. Lines 428-434 of the standard Arizona…
Read More >>
Should Barking Dogs Be Disclosed To New Owners?
Question: We lived in our Glendale home for more than four years until we moved to our Sun City home. During the time that we lived in our Glendale home, we both worked during the day, as did our next-door neighbors, who had three dogs that were outside and barked constantly during the day. At night and during the weekends, however, the dogs were generally inside our next-door neighbors’ home. Three months ago, we sold our Glendale home. During escrow, the buyers came by our home several times during the day for inspections, and saw and heard the barking. The…
Read More >>
No Title Insurance Coverage Generally If Home Is In Floodplain
Question: We purchased a home on a five-acre lot near Payson. Two months after we moved into the home there was an overflow of the nearby creek which flooded our entire backyard. Apparently 25% of our five-acre lot is in the Town of Payson’s flood plain. We immediately reviewed our title insurance policy to see if there was flood coverage, or if there was an exception to title insurance for flooding. There was no reference in our title insurance policy relating to coverage for flooding, one way or the other. The seller of the home was an elderly lady who…
Read More >>
What To Disclose When Selling A Home
Question: We own a home on the side of Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley. If there are heavy rains, there will occasionally be minor rockslides into our swimming pool in the backyard. We are now selling our home. Do we have to disclose these occasional minor rock slides? Answer: Probably. In determining what a seller should disclose to a buyer, two rules should be followed: 1. If it is material it must be disclosed; if it is not material, why not disclose it? 2. If you were the buyer, would you want to know? If these two rules are followed,…
Read More >>
Sign up to stay in touch!
Sign up to get Arizona Republic articles written by Chris Combs and other real estate news delivered to your inbox.