10-06-2009, 05:50 PM
What a terrible ordeal! I'm NOT an attorney, but there seems to be a lot of liability to go around. If the developer who buried the greenwaste knew that was the spot where the house would be built, there should be liability. It's possible that the architect did not know about the buried material when he was given the site to work with, so that's a question mark to me. The contractor is obviously liable if he knowingly built over albezia waste. The realtor, regardless of whether he/she is still practicing, could be liable for failure to disclose. The sellers could be held legally responsible for failure to disclose as well, although getting at them in Japan might be a mess.
A standard real estate contract should have a lengthy questionnaire that has disclosure of known faults. Was one of those provided to you Carrie? If it was, and this hideous fault was left off, the seller and realtor should both be sued. Unless there are other factors not mentioned above, it amazes me that you haven't found a lawyer willing to jump on this. I guess another question that comes to mind is why the previous owners didn't sue if they knew there was subsidence. I suppose they could have just decided to sell before things got really bad, but it sure seems strange that they did not seek redress. Instead, it sounds like they chose to pass the problem on to you. I hope you nail to the wall any and all of these people who might have knowingly cheated you.
One last thing: Doesn't the permitting and building inspection process have a site inspection where the foundation and support elements are checked? It might be instructive to pull those records. Even though you can safely assume that it passed, there might be something there that would help.
A standard real estate contract should have a lengthy questionnaire that has disclosure of known faults. Was one of those provided to you Carrie? If it was, and this hideous fault was left off, the seller and realtor should both be sued. Unless there are other factors not mentioned above, it amazes me that you haven't found a lawyer willing to jump on this. I guess another question that comes to mind is why the previous owners didn't sue if they knew there was subsidence. I suppose they could have just decided to sell before things got really bad, but it sure seems strange that they did not seek redress. Instead, it sounds like they chose to pass the problem on to you. I hope you nail to the wall any and all of these people who might have knowingly cheated you.
One last thing: Doesn't the permitting and building inspection process have a site inspection where the foundation and support elements are checked? It might be instructive to pull those records. Even though you can safely assume that it passed, there might be something there that would help.