We've been in our house 2 weeks and just noticed a slow dripping beneath the bathroom (into the basement) after a shower.

We had a contractor come over and look at it and he told us that the water is coming from around the tub where the previous homeowner installed a bathrub liner and shower door (incorrectly). He also told us that the entire subfloor of the bathroom is rotted out.

The contractor also told us there is always a possiblity of mold but we won't know this until we rip everything out.

He also told us that the seller obviously tried to cover this up by adding new wood below the rotted wood in in the basement so it couldn't be seen. There is also caulking between the wood supports in the basement. The only reason I can guess for this is to attempt to hold water up in the ceiling during our home inspection. Unfortunately, our inspector did not notice this new wood/caulking in the ceiling... neither did I although it's fairly obvious in hindsight.

To fix this properly we'll have to rip out the entire bathroom and put new subfloor in which is a considerable expense of which I don't have the money for at this point.

I'm wondering what our recourse is here... to me this is an obvious water problem that the owner new about and tried to hide rather then fix correctly. It should have been at least disclosed and wasn't.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Glenn

You may have recourse if you can prove that the seller knew about the problem and failed to disclose.

Offside--- a friend of mine had a similar leak problem. It turned out that the shower head was the culprit. It was leaking inside the wall down to the basement. A friend with plumbing skills repaired the leak by replacing the shower head. He also had to do a little drywall patching to close up the hole he created. The whole thing cost less than $100. Did you actually see the rotted wood that the contractor saw? If not, maybe having a plumber look at the problem might help.

We're certain the culprit is the liner in the tub... it was put in half-assed and there is way more caulking than should have been necessary... an apparent attempt to fix a water problem.

What's my next step... do I contact my buyer agent first? If so what can he do... is it possible he can contact the seller agent and we could negotiate a settlement out of court?

If that doesn't work do I contact a real estate attorney?

gratner, depending on your state and disclosure laws, you may have no recourse. in VA, there is a choice of disclaimer, meaning that the seller doesn't know what's gone wrong with the house and will not tell you what's been wrong with the house, or a disclosure, telling you what's gone wrong with the house to their knowledge. do you know if you signed either of these?

As far as I know I didn't sign anything along those lines.

I talked to my agent and he is in agreement that the sellers never disclosed this problem.

He told me there is a "mitigation option" whereby both the buyer (me) and the seller put up $150 (assuming they agree to mitigation) and have a mitigator decide on the issue.

Right now he is attempting to reach the selling agent in order to inform them of the situation and find out if they're willing to go the mitigation route.

If not I'll have to get an attorney.

Does anyone around here have experience with mitigating these types of disputes or can recommend whether this is a good or bad way to go?

Get your contractor to put in writing that there was wood added to conceal the rotted wood. If you can get another estimate and see if a different contractor agrees that it looks like the damage was concealed.Get a copy of both estimate\reports to your buyers agent which may sellers agree to mitigation. If not sucessful it is lawyer time.

I find that it is always better to mitigate any situation rather than get lawyers involved. At $150 to $200 an hour it won’t be long before both side could have paid for the repair and nothing has been fixed, just a lot of paper back and forth.

Bruce

I agree. First, get a second opinion in writing. Second, work with the two agents because they both had an important part in this transaction. They may also be able to help come up with a win/win solution. If you can work something out directly with the seller, that would be the best route. No need to necessarily mitigate unless the sellers feel they aren't at fault or aren't willing to help.

At this point, we don't know what the sellers did and didn't know. It's possible that they hired someone to fix the issue and that person did a sloppy job by just covering up the problem. Perhaps that's just wishful thinking, but it seems as if you have a good argument for them helping with at least part of the repair cost.