Real Estate Q & A: Situation frustrates
Q.: This situation has frustrated me for almost two years but I refuse to give up:
We purchased a home in 2004. The Multiple Listing Service information sheet advertised it as having a heated ceramic tile floor in the master bath. When it came to December of that same year I was wondering where this feature was since I didn’t step onto a warm bathroom floor. There was also a strange sound coming from our basement.
We called the contractor that installed the supposed unit only to find out that the system that was installed into our floor was minimal and was not to heat the floor but was only for the purposes of making sure the pipes didn’t freeze in our bath.
Half of our master bath is above the garage. The system kicks in only when it goes below 40 degrees and turns off when it goes over 50 degrees. I feel cheated. I have tried, with the help of a lawyer, to file a complaint about the agent to no avail. I have filed a complaint about the builder.
Part of the issue is that we are the second owner. Both the first agent and the second one listed the house as having this feature and apparently the first owner either didn’t recognize the problem or didn’t care, but I do. I know what a heated ceramic tile floor is and I feel cheated. I have lots of documentation regarding this matter.
I also feel like everyone is passing the buck and blaming everyone else. To install a floor would cost around $6,000 and I feel I paid for this in the price of my house. Help! — Oconomowoc, Wis.
A.: You need to document how both the agent and the seller misrepresented this feature. Promotional brochures of a seller’s disclosure statement on the features of the property stating that the house did have a heated ceramic tile floor are critical to the representation that you relied upon when purchasing the property.
Often multiple listing service sheets will state that the information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
You may be running out of time to file a claim. Arbitration clauses, if you signed one as part of your purchase agreement, require that a claim be filed within a certain amount of time after discovering the problem.