Real Estate & Property Law
Wis. High Court Allows Homebuyer to Sue Seller Over Leaky Basement
Posted Jun 2, 2008, 06:31 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled a homebuyer can sue the previous owners on a claim they lied about flooding in the basement.
The suit by homebuyer Chad Novell claims the sellers told him their basement never had water in the nine years they lived there and that they had never painted the walls. After buying the house, Novell learned it routinely flooded, the Associated Press reports.
A home inspector had alerted Novell to potential water problems, and the home sellers said he had not reasonably relied on their misrepresentation. The court said in its opinion that Novell is entitled to a trial on the issue.
The court said Novell was not required to prove reasonable reliance as an element of his claim, but it could be relevant in an assessment of whether the sellers’ misrepresentations caused his loss.
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