For Sale By Owner
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For Sale By Owner
We purchased a house ‘For Sale By Owner’ it has a swimming pool but there was not a disclosure on the swimming pool. Now we are opening it up for the summer and we cannot get the pump to work and were told that it has a collapsed line I do not feel like we should be responsible to fix it. Can we make the seller pay to fix it right also we were told that the seller had rigged things around to get it to work.
Asked on June 13, 2016 under Real Estate Law, Oklahoma
Answers:
S.L,. Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
You can sue the seller for fraud. Fraud is the intentional misrepresentation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity and with the intent to induce your reliance upon which you justifiably relied to your detriment.
In other words, you would not have bought the house had you known of the seller rigging the pump.
Your damages (monetary compensation you are seeking in your lawsuit for fraud) would be either the benefit of the bargain or your out of pocket loss.
Benefit of the bargain is the difference between the actual value of the property and the value as represented in the case of misrepresentation.
Out of pocket loss is the difference between the value of what the buyer paid and the market value of what was received.
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