undisclosed asbestos

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I am entirely confident that, if we had known about the asbestos and asked her to fix it, she would have refused. She made it quite clear during the entire process that she did not want to fix ANYTHING. As a matter of fact, when we met her at the house after the closing to get the keys, she revealed a leaking water line in the kitchen where she had removed the refrigerator. She left a bowl on the floor to catch the drips of water leaking from a pipe sticking out of the wall. We immediately called a plumber to fix it (which of course cost us several hundred dollars). How is that for a "welcome home" gift? She had just pocketed ~$400k profit on the sale, but was too cheap to call a plumber to fix the leaking water line that she left behind after disconnecting the refrigerator.

So, yes, we were going to pay for asbestos abatement one way or another. One difference is that, if we had known about it before, we could have addressed it before moving in. Then we could have avoided any exposure that may have occurred. I'm not particularly worried about the exposure and think the whole asbestos thing is a bit overblown, but the ducting is 40 years old. It makes sense to go ahead and have it updated for several reasons besides the asbestos issue.

The question now is: can I recover any of the abatement and/or replacement costs from her for failing to disclose what she knew (or didn't know) about the property? Because she was my agent, she did have a higher duty and responsibility to me. I don't think checking "no" on item C1 was really an option because of the obvious lead-based paint, which is one of the specific items listed in C1 in addition to asbestos. She should have just checked "yes" and provided an explanation. Instead, she chose not to answer, which in my opinion shows an intent to conceal the truth. Eventually we might get to find out if a small claims judge agrees.
 
oc_dreamer said:
The question now is: can I recover any of the abatement and/or replacement costs from her for failing to disclose what she knew (or didn't know) about the property? Because she was my agent, she did have a higher duty and responsibility to me. I don't think checking "no" on item C1 was really an option because of the obvious lead-based paint, which is one of the specific items listed in C1 in addition to asbestos. She should have just checked "yes" and provided an explanation. Instead, she chose not to answer, which in my opinion shows an intent to conceal the truth. Eventually we might get to find out if a small claims judge agrees.
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I doubt it. You signed the thing with the box unchecked. You can try your luck in small claims but even that might be a stretch.
 
There's two ways to look at it.  If you feel like you've gotten a good deal on the house, then perhaps this added cost is just a partial offset against the money you saved over another home that was in great condition.  If you were the winner of a bidding war and paid $$ over list price, then perhaps you might feel that this added cost is in addition to having paid full price and then some for your home.

If you head the small claims route, I would add the cost to repair the leak behind the fridge to your claim for damages.  My guess is that it wasn't leaking when you inspected the house or there would have been telltale puddles.  More than likely the leak occurred when the fridge was moved while the water line was connected to it. 
 
oc_dreamer said:
The question now is: can I recover any of the abatement and/or replacement costs from her for failing to disclose what she knew (or didn't know) about the property?
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Reading the follow-up notes, if she replaced the AC, I'd find it hard to believe she wasn't aware of the ducting situation. 

Any idea who did the AC work?  Perhaps you could find out what their recommendation was. 
 
I would let it go. You were okay with the disclosure form not having concrete answers then. You're not okay with it today. Can't travel back in time. What's done is done. Not worth your stress to pursue over that dollar amount. It's a drop in the bucket. Home ownership is expensive no matter how you slice it. Sometimes owning a home just downright sucks. I certainly relate to your frustration. If it wouldn't be this, it would be something else. Believe me. There's always going to be something else. There are moments all of us humans play the "What If...?" game in our minds over big decisions we make. I do it, too. Btw, you're going to have a leaky valve every time you turn one off / turn it back on in an older home. Toilets, sinks, fridge... all of them. Been there. Anticipate replacing them all eventually when you do renos. I've never heard of it costing hundreds, though. Cheap fix.
 
I agree w/ SoCal and recommend letting it go. The fact of the matter is that you're prepared to pay for the fix regardless of the outcome and fighting this battle may prove to be more costly in terms of time/money/energy. That said, if you're very convicted and passionate - then by all means fight for what you believe.

As I see it, yes - it's very odd that #1 was just left unanswered. But, in small claims court, I believe you'd have to prove that the agent knowingly acted maliciously. The DRE may have something else to say as a buyer agent should've caught that and drilled down to at least understand why the question was left unanswered. But, you wouldn't necessarily receive monetary benefit.

The best thing I could recommend is to try to resolve this amicably by talking to the agent. Write up a review and send it to the agent and explain that you plan to post it to Yelp and Zillow (nobody checks BBB when looking for an agent). And also file a complaint with the DRE. This shows that you mean business - and at a click of a mouse you can cause her some serious headaches. Don't come off as threatening, but make it known that you're aware of your options. Hopefully that generates some movement in a settlement of sorts.
 
Thanks for the advice. I do appreciate it.

I'm not all that upset about the situation, but I happened to recall that I have a "legal insurance" plan through my employer. So, I spoke with one of the attorneys who is part of the plan. There is going to be some action here...

I don't know if it will amount to anything, but I might as well give it a shot as long as it does not require much time/effort from me. I completely agree with the point that fights like this are often not worth the time/stress/money. So, I'm going to be careful not to waste much effort on it. Life is too short and I have plenty of other things in my life that are way more important.
 
oc_dreamer said:
Just want to further add that I appreciate everybody's responses here. I especially like irvine buyer's idea of going to the DRE. I may end up going that route...

Although it's kind of a side issue, here are some details about the furnace situation for those who asked: when the furnace died last month, we contacted Home Warranty of America (HWA) because a warranty was included in the purchase of the house. For $60 they sent out a contractor who determined that the furnace must be replaced because it is "not safe for further use." We had considerable difficulty dealing with HWA and their contractor. After a few weeks of not getting anywhere with them, we finally decided to accept the pathetic sum of $537 to settle the warranty claim.

With HWA and their contractor out of the picture, we had 3 different contractors of our choosing come look at our furnace setup. All 3 of them pointed out the asbestos ducting and said it should be removed because it is broken in several places. Also, the vent pipe is a "transite" pipe which is made of asbestos and must also be replaced.

When we bought this house we understood that it is older and would need some work. We have no problem paying for that because we saved quite a bit of money by buying an older house. The issue is that the presence of asbestos was not disclosed. If that had been disclosed to us, we probably would have bought the house anyway and addressed the situation before moving in. I understand that sellers are not required to remove asbestos, but they are required to disclose it if they know about it. Given the facts that she is a broker, that she had the AC replaced (but not the furnace) and intentionally left item C1 blank on the form, I believe that she did know.
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Just FYI when you get around to removing the asbestos.

Generally, asbestos around the ductwork in the attic space is going to be duct insulation, sometimes referred to as aircell, it looks like a corrugated paper like material, sometimes with a silver backing.  This material was made with a higher concentration of asbestos (10-30%) vs say drywall joint compound or acoustic ceiling (2-5%).  If it is damaged, this could complicate things and any good (and law abiding) licensed abatement contractor will tell you that you'll need to have an assessment done by a Certified Asbestos Consultant.  If damaged, a cleanup plan would need to generated, approved and executed by the contractor- this could be quite costly.  Where an asbestos survey/assessment would not be required is if the amount of asbestos to be removed is less than 100 square feet of intact material and at a single unit residential dwelling; but the contractor must treat the material as if it was asbestos.  Just so you know when you get quotes from different abatement contractors.  ;).  I am not a contractor nor consultant btw.
 
Good advice Garmin.  Is it 100 sf of intact material or is the exclusion for 100 sf of living area?  I thought it was the latter.
 
irvine buyer said:
Good advice Garmin.  Is it 100 sf of intact material or is the exclusion for 100 sf of living area?  I thought it was the latter.
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The exemption applies to the square footage of surface area of asbestos that will be removed (which would generally be the same for say asbestos floor tile in a room; but in your case, it would take a lot of material to exceed the 100 sq feet).
 
Small claims wouldn't be allowed if the arbitration clause of the purchase contract was initialed, right?
 
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