ok lawyer type or real estate pro's

[OUHOMER]

The son signed a contract on a new house today. I went and looked at it, its a nice place, no yard to speak of.

My concern is flooding. The street is higher than the driveway and garage floor.I went to look at it, there was a guy pressure washing the driveway and it looked like the water was shedding off to the neighbors. thru the grass and across their driveway.

So my question is, if this results in flooding into the garage and possibly the house. Will he have any recourse against the builder?

this really, really concerns me. but he signed the contract before I talked to him, and of course he is too excited and young to be very concerned today. :mad:

[OU-HSV]

I'm no lawyer or real estate agent. But I like home shopping....and my wife has family who are realtors. In fact her aunt is our realtor and we were recently shopping for another home until my office cut our hours.

So anyways. Is that a brand new home or is it a (new to him) home/resale home?

If it's a new home...it ought to be covered in the one (or two year) home warranty supplied by the builder's company. If you all are concerned about it, I would ask them if that's something that would be covered. If they say it's not....I would argue with them until they would cover it and have them put it in writing. (The home I live in now we bought as a newly built home/we bought the lot and followed the construction progress. I've had to deal with them on my warranty a few times...even after the warranty expired)

If it's a resale home...it's my understanding that by law the seller should be disclosing any kind of damage, flooding, etc. that home has had. Mold is a big buzz word in this day...that's another thing they have to disclose.

Like I said, I'm not an agent or anything, I've just spent a lot of time with my wife's aunt when we've been home shopping recently and a few years ago...so I've learned quite a bit. (so that's the best understanding I have/that's my 2 cents).

[SCOUT]

I am not an expert either but I did purchase a new home just under 2 years ago. This was the first house that I have lived in that didn't have an alley. It has the front access driveway with the back yard butting up against the neighbor. Their yard is about 4 feet higher than mine so we have a stone wall under the fence. When we built, I was VERY concerned because the only drainage was some minor swales running to each side yard.

Our builder assured me that it wouldn't be a problem, but I knew that it would be. Sure enough, we had a marsh on either side of our house every time it rained or the neighbors watered our lawn. We called the builder out and they checked it over a two day period. The threshold was that there be standing water for 24 hours after a rain. There was and they put in two french drains. We didn't even have to fill out any paperwork.

[OU-HSV]

I am not an expert either but I did purchase a new home just under 2 years ago. This was the first house that I have lived in that didn't have an alley. It has the front access driveway with the back yard butting up against the neighbor. Their yard is about 4 feet higher than mine so we have a stone wall under the fence. When we built, I was VERY concerned because the only drainage was some minor swales running to each side yard.

Our builder assured me that it wouldn't be a problem, but I knew that it would be. Sure enough, we had a marsh on either side of our house every time it rained or the neighbors watered our lawn. We called the builder out and they checked it over a two day period. The threshold was that there be standing water for 24 hours after a rain. There was and they put in two french drains. We didn't even have to fill out any paperwork.

That's great that your builder took care of you without paperwork. Some of them are uptight s.o.b.'s and wouldn't handle it that well. Are you in the Broken Arrow/Tulsa area or OKC area? Just curious if the builder is in my area or not?

[SCOUT]

I am actually in Murphy, TX (a suburb of Dallas). Our builder was mostly a pain in the ***, but that mostly during building. Once we got to the warranty people they were pretty good.

[SicEmBaylor]

If you can't find yourself a good lawyer in this thread then look for a good loyer instead.

[OUHOMER]

It is a new house in a new addition. if nothing else he will have hell getting out of the driveway when it is cover in ice,
and he better be careful pulling in.

[Okla-homey]

So my question is, if this results in flooding into the garage and possibly the house. Will he have any recourse against the builder?



here's the bottomline. Sure, the builder can probably be sued if this is new construction, and there's a newly discovered problem. Heck, folks can pretty much sue anyone for just about anything. The key here though, is this builder a stand-up guy who will make it right without being sued? After all, who wants to spend a lot of money they can't afford just to make a builder do the right thing? Does the builder have the means to fix stuff and/or pay a judgment? Or is he some little guy who doesn't have deep enough pockets to take care of problems or pay a judgment?

Now, the kid may not be balls deep in this yet either just because he signed a contract. Most real estate contracts contain oodles of clauses that allow the buyer to walk away before closing if something is discovered to be wrong with the place the seller can't/won't fix before closing. Just hope for a rainy couple days before closing and go check it out. If water is backing up into the garage, snap some pics with your phone and send them to the seller telling him "fix or I walk." Alternatively, have it inspected by someone qualified to do so who is bonded and who will warrant there is no problem. That way, you have someone else besides the builder to look to for relief if there is a problem.

Just some thoughts.

[OUDoc]

Was the house inspected? If not, maybe ask to have it inspected by your own guy. They look for that (they did in my case) and I believe code is for a proper grade away from the foundation of a house.