Am I liable for hail damage ???

Question

Today I was contacted by the person that bought my house over two months ago. He claims that hail damage occured in between the inspection and the closing. There was a storm during this time, but I was unaware of any damage to the house. The buyer knew about the storm, in fact he even joked about being glad the house made it through the storm at closing. At the time of the storm, we no longer lived there. We had moved out because we were supposed to have closed already. The reason we hadn't was because of delays with his bank. I am not even sure if this is when the damage occurred, because he waved the right for an inspection. The only inspection was done by the VA in order to approve the loan. Am I liable for the damage since I did not know of any damage, and the buyer knew of the storm before closing?

Answer 1

This comes up from time to time, and the short answer is:

No, you are not responsible.

The reason:

The BIGGEST reason is that he waived his right to an inspection--at all, in the sales contract.

He had a right to inspect the property again post-storm even if he originally waived this right. (this happens ALOT in coastal areas everytime a hurricane comes through...sometimes lenders will require it to make sure the property is still there and they send back out the appraiser).

He declined to do that.

He also, two months later, CANNOT prove that it was THAT storm that did the damage....unless he can prove it hasn't rained since then.

The VA didn't do an inspection, b/c VA loans don't require them.  What he had was an APPRAISAL.

A VA appraisal is NOT an inspection. An appraiser is not required to get on the roof..for ANY loan, VA, FHA or otherwise.

Answer 2

The owner of the property is responsible for the property until the ownership changes.  There is a gray area here that needs to be worked through since he waived his right to the inspection.  That alone does not mean that you, as the owner of the property, are off the hook for damages.

Lets use the same situation but a different type of damage.  The entire situation is the same except that in the storm the house was struck by lightning and not hail.  The lightning bolt caused a fire which burned the house down.  Who gets the insurance money?  Would it be you as the legal owner of the house or would it be the buyer?  We can take this one step further in that maybe it didn't burn the house down, just destroyed one room of the house.  Is the buyer on the hook because they agreed to buy the house or are you on the hook because it is still legally your house?

We can take the same situation to another type of example.  Say you go to a car lot and agree to buy a car.  You look the car over and then go into the office to sign the papers.  While inside it storms outside (hail).  The storm stops before you leave the office.  After all is said and done you drive the car off the lot and the next day there is a huge crack in the windshield.  When you go to get it repaired the repairman says the damage was caused by the storm.  Should you pay for the windshield since the storm happened before you owned the car?

either way, good luck with this.

Answer 3

If the VA sited the damage, and the sale is contingent upon the repair of the damage - then yes you are liable for the damage.

Answer 4

Regardless of any inspection contingency, you ARE liable for damages which occur between the time of the offer and closing.  However, this one is dicey, simply because nothing was said about possible damage prior to closing.  The buyer may be able to get weather records from the local weather bureau indicating that there has been no hail since the time of the supposed damage, which would bolster his case.  In any event, I presume you had insurance coverage for this type of damage.  Even though the policy is no longer valid, it WAS valid for damage as long as you owned the property.

Call your insurer and dump it in their laps.  The insurance adjusters are well informed as to these situations, when the damage probably occurred, etc.  Do the buyer a favor and see if you can get coverage for the damage for him.

Answer 5

If the inspector hadn't noticed it then you're not liable for it.