I recently closed on a re-sale condo in a high rise building in the Toronto area.

I want to bring to the attention of others who are in the market looking to buy a resale property and important thing.

My Agreement of purchase included a clause that stated that all appliances and fixtures would be in working condition.
This was backed by a Warranty certificate from the Seller, which was signed and given to me by Seller upon closing.

I had the usual suspects that are involved in a real estate transaction, involved in this purchase...namely my Real Estate Agent, an attorney representing me.

Neither did my Realtor (who prepared the Agreement of Purchase) or the attorney (who reviewed the AoP and closed the deal) advise me how you would go after the Seller, if after closing you find any appliances to be in not working condition.

I did not bother to spend the $200 to $250 on home inspection, as I thought this is just a condo, with very little in terms on complexity, compared to a home.

Before closing, there was no way for me to check if the Dishwasher was working as I would have to run the darn thing for an hour to check, which is not practical i.e to ask my realtor and the Seller to sit one hour while do this. Same was the case with the Central Air Conditioning unit, I could just power it to see it is blowing hot air or not, but not know if there are other problems till I do a detailed check.

A day after closing, once I get the keys, I find that water inlet valve to the dishwasher was not working. It costed me $200 bucks to repair it.

I called up my attorney who now coolly responds that, she will send a letter to the Seller's lawyer to pay, but if they don't, then she cannot do anything, I have file a claim in small claims court, which she does not do, so I have to find another lawyer just to do that !!

I don't understand then what was the value in me hiring her. Being an expert who closed hundreds of deals, she should have given the simple advice of adding a clause in the AoP, to put some money aside for a week or two after closing, till I check all the appliances.

To even file a claim in the small claims court, the fee is $75 to $100 bucks, plus the time spent.

So here you have the classic situation of the Seller breaking the law, still because the money involved is less, I cannot do a thing and have to let it go...just like you do in India. This just bothers me.

Story does not end there...just got a letter from the condo management last week that there are un-repaired defects in the in suite A/C unit that I need to get fixed. This was discovered last year in Dec when the condo management did routince maintaince and had served the previous owner 2 notices to fix, but he never did.
Again it costed me $225 bucks to fix and my lawyer is telling the same thing.

So folks..moral of the story.....if you do not want to be cheated and deal with small claims court...do yourself a favour and get a clause in the AoP added, to put some money aside in a trust account, that will be released to the Seller after 2 weeks of closing.

Even if you hire professionals to seal the deal, they are not going to give you this advice.

Lucky you, just spent 500 dollars!!!.. Could have been worst.

Even though its possible to add all the clauses in the offer, I think it may never be complete.

I think in realestate one should keep a buffer of 1-2% for unknown expenses. Otherwise its harder on your peace of mind than your pocket.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Manjeet Singh

Agreed, but it's not a bad idea if the Seller agrees, depending on how many things you think can go wrong, to keep some money from the Purchase price aside and in your lawyers control, rather than handing all off to the Seller. This will minimize the loss to the Buyer and save some time which could be rather spent enjoying the new roof over your head.

My attorney's response also to my calls has changed post-closing. She seemed to me the best attorney till closing date, as she would promptly call back if I had any questions. But after closing, the communication was only by postal mail from her.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Manjeet

Lucky you, just spent 500 dollars!!!.. Could have been worst.

Even though its possible to add all the clauses in the offer, I think it may never be complete.

I think in realestate one should keep a buffer of 1-2% for unknown expenses. Otherwise its harder on your peace of mind than your pocket.

---

I would always recommend a home inspection for all properties regardless of age, size, condition etc. The home inspectors are very thorough and check everything inside/out including the operating conditions of all the appliances.

For a few hundred dollars, it adds the peace of mind and you can ask the seller to remedy the problems (or make an adjustment in the price) to your satisfaction after the home inspection report is released to you.

A recent home I purchased for a client revealed some structural issues and problems with the heating system so we asked for an adjustment in the price for a few thousand dollars to my client's satisfaction. The home was only a few years old.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Vimal Patel, Realtor
Homelife Royalcorp Real Estate Inc., Brokerage
Cell: 416-887-3745
Office: 905-856-6611
Fax: 905-856-6232
vimal.patel@gmail.com
http://www.vimalpatel.ca" rel="nofollow">LINK

The retension money is a good idea and is followed for Architect designed residential buildings in India. We keep 10% money for 1 year so that if the contractor did any mistakes in building he will come running to rectify it.
In Canada, Real estate is a good business and the association of realtors has extensively lobbied with the govt. (and suceeded) so that these time tested rules are no longer followed. If these rules were followed, then the economy will move very slowly which these people donot want. So every one is in a hurry to make money. Once the deal is closed and the money has changed hand, no one wants to reopen the closed file and work. Unless we are very careful, these guys can make a fool out of us.
Many of the realtors, lawyers ,Building salesman, building inspectors, are inexperienced and have joined the band wagon due to the building boom. This is esp. true in Alberta, where the situation is much worse than what is happening in the GTA. People there just buy and sell in order to make a quick buck.
TK A

-----------------------------------------------------------------
I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

I pretty much am dejected with the services I got from using a Realtor and Attorney to close my recent re-sale condo purchase.

I feel they did not advise me of the basic things that could go wrong, this after they claiming to have done this several times.

Agreed I did not do an inspection, because I was a first time home buyer and since this was a condo and especially since I was renting a condo in this same building, I thought the money spent would have been a waste.

Plus I don't know the extent of things that an inspector checks. For instance this week now I find out that the water pressure in bathroom showers and kitchen faucet is low. Not sure if an inspector would have necessarily caught this.

Googling around I found this could be a thing that will need a plumber to look at, not something I can fix myself.

So a lesson for me....don't buy a resale home unless you are pretty good about detecting problems, spending the time to hire someone to fix it and more importantly being able to estimate how much it will cost to fix these, so that you offer the seller a price accordingly.

Better to buy new houses, as long as they are not very far outside the city and atleast have the assurance of a new home buyers warranty.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tamilkuravan

The retension money is a good idea and is followed for Architect designed residential buildings in India. We keep 10% money for 1 year so that if the contractor did any mistakes in building he will come running to rectify it.
In Canada, Real estate is a good business and the association of realtors has extensively lobbied with the govt. (and suceeded) so that these time tested rules are no longer followed. If these rules were followed, then the economy will move very slowly which these people donot want. So every one is in a hurry to make money. Once the deal is closed and the money has changed hand, no one wants to reopen the closed file and work. Unless we are very careful, these guys can make a fool out of us.
Many of the realtors, lawyers ,Building salesman, building inspectors, are inexperienced and have joined the band wagon due to the building boom. This is esp. true in Alberta, where the situation is much worse than what is happening in the GTA. People there just buy and sell in order to make a quick buck.
TK A

---

Sorry to hear about your experience :-( Since real estate investment is one of the biggest investment a person makes, I feel for you....

Take care...Rose