馃攳
I Found Termite Damage After Closing On My House - Lawyer Discusses - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[1]
- Hi, this is Dan Whitney
with the Whitney Law Firm
[3]
in Towson, Maryland.
[4]
If you're watching this video,
[5]
it's because you're
probably looking information
[7]
about the issue of I found termite damage
[10]
after closing on my house.
[12]
So I handle and my firm handles cases
[15]
involving termite damage in houses
[19]
that somebody just bought, in a new house
[22]
and what to do about it.
[23]
So buying a house of course
is extremely expensive
[26]
and it can be stressful.
[27]
And there's a lot of moving parts
[29]
that most people just
assume that the right thing,
[32]
the right inspections are being done
[35]
and oftentimes that works.
[36]
But when it doesn't, it
can be a huge big problem,
[39]
an expensive problem.
[40]
And when it's something
like termite damage,
[43]
there really is no way to ignore it
[46]
because once you know about it,
the damage may be spreading.
[50]
And of course, the damage has to get fixed
[52]
in order to preserve
the structural integrity
[54]
of the house, depending
on how bad the damage is.
[57]
So the way that most people
discover termite damage
[63]
in a new house is after
they close, they'll move in
[67]
and within weeks or months,
they'll come to find
[70]
either the termite
swarmers themselves flying
[74]
or on the ground, they may
find cracks in the wood,
[78]
they might find what looks
like sawdust popping out.
[81]
They may look in their
basement or somewhere
[83]
where there's wood and realize
that wood doesn't look right
[86]
and do some investigation,
maybe pry it with a screwdriver
[90]
and find there's damaged wood.
[92]
And of course, the issue once
you find the termite damage
[94]
is, well, what am I gonna do about it now?
[97]
So the good news is depending
on how you did your purchase
[102]
of the home, there are a number of parties
[105]
that may have been or may be responsible
[108]
for finding that damage and
bringing it to your attention
[113]
before you bought the house.
[115]
And that is who you would
look to to determine
[118]
who you may be able to
recover compensation from
[122]
to properly repair the termite damage.
[126]
Those parties that we
have brought lawsuits
[130]
and claims against in the
past to recover compensation
[133]
so our clients could repair the damage,
[135]
those parties often include
the seller, of course,
[141]
potentially a real estate
agent, either the buyer's
[144]
or the seller's agent
because there's duties
[146]
of disclosure on both ends.
[149]
For example, even if a real estate agent
[152]
represents the seller, if
they know about termite damage
[155]
in Maryland at least,
[156]
they certainly must disclose that damage.
[158]
It's a material fact and they have a duty
[160]
to disclose all material
facts to all parties.
[164]
So the seller, the real
estate agent and of course,
[166]
we cannot forget the WDI inspector
[169]
or termite inspection contractor.
[172]
There's a lot of cases
against them in Maryland
[175]
where they simply don't find
[178]
or they say they don't find damage
[180]
that they should have seen.
[182]
And of course, had they
seen it and they put it
[184]
on the report and the
potential buyer saw it,
[186]
the potential buyer could have said,
[188]
well, I see there's a problem.
[189]
Let's either investigate it further.
[191]
Or they could say, you know what?
[192]
I don't want any termite damage, I'm out.
[195]
We see a lot of termite damage
cases arising out of houses
[199]
that are flipped because
of course the flipper has
[201]
no real good incentive to do
a solid job most of the time.
[204]
They just wanna flip it, hide any damage
[206]
or sometimes they hide the
damage and then sell it
[209]
to the next unsuspecting person
[210]
who sees maybe a beautiful kitchen
[213]
or some beautiful bathrooms
or beautiful new floors.
[216]
And it's not until after
they close that they realize,
[218]
uh-oh, we've got termite
damage in half the house.
[221]
It's gonna be 100,000
to fix, what do I do?
[224]
The good news is depending
on the facts of your case,
[227]
you may be able to recover compensation
[228]
and take care of the
damage, and sometimes money
[231]
for emotional distress as well,
depending on what happened
[233]
and who hid what or who was negligent
[236]
or whatever, depends on the facts.
[237]
But the point is you can find help
[240]
and you can recover
compensation in some situations.
[243]
So if your case was in Maryland,
[245]
please feel free to give us a call.
[247]
We offer free consultations to homeowners
[249]
in termite damage cases.
[251]
So just give us a call
[253]
or come to the website whitneyfirm.com.
[255]
We've also got some blogs on the website
[257]
that talk about termite damage
[258]
and some of the past cases we've handled.
[261]
So if you're looking for more information,
[263]
please see the site.
[264]
We'll be doing more videos on the subject.
[266]
Thanks for watching, take care, bye.
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage