Caveat Emptor Buyer Beware!!

Thinking about buying a home in Virginia? Have you heard of the term Caveat Emptor? You can get the Wikipedia definition here.

This term is important when purchasing a home in Virginia because the sellers do not have to disclose ANY DEFECT about the property. This means a house can have a flooding basement, a leaking roof, a drug dealer next door, and they don't have to say a thing. However, in DC, you have to disclose ALL material facts that the owner is aware of. While I'm not a lawyer, I thought you should know this fact.

VA's history - this law was a result of an incident that happened in the VA Beach/Hampton area where a house was well known for the basement flood on a rainy day. It was so well known that almost every neighbor knew about the flooding problem but the buyer never asked. You then have a buyer, not knowing this information purchases this house, and on the first rainy day, the basement flooded. Naturally, the buyers were upset and decided to sue the seller for their negligence to disclose such pertinent information. Well, unfortunately the result was that the information was so readily available that the court ruled for the sellers stating "caveat emptor" as the reasoning....meaning that the buyers should have done their due diligence.

This was obviously an extremely case and won't expect such events to occur very often, but you don't want to be part of the landmark scenario. So, how do you protect yourself? First, inspect the house carefully. Visible signs of any damage is a clear indication of any possible issues. Second, hire a home inspector. While the home inspector can't, and won't, clearly identify the cause of the issue, he should be able to help you narrow down the possibilities. Third, ask lots of questions, especially to your Realtor? While Realtors may not be builders, we have seen lots of homes and we can detect a pattern of home defects.