Buying a house is one of the most difficult and expensive decisions that are usually made. An important step that in most cases is taken with the hope of finding the ideal home, but it can become a nightmare if the sellers do not tell the whole truth about the condition of the home. This is what happened to some French buyers who, convinced that they had checked every detail before buying a house, discovered that it was in an area prone to flooding, and that it had already suffered several serious ones before the sale. Something that the former owners, according to justice, never told.
The problem came to light in 2014, when a storm flooded the house twice in just two weeks. As explained in the French media Figaro Real Estateit was not the first time that the house was flooded, and the municipality had been declared a “natural disaster area” up to twelve times since 1982, six of them due to flooding. The most serious thing is that the buyers discovered that the sellers had been victims of the 2002 storms, appearing on official lists, but had never confessed it during the sale.
Five years after purchasing the house, and after feeling deceived, the buyers took the case to court. They alleged that the sellers stated in writing that the house had not suffered damage related to natural disasters, when they knew perfectly well that it had. “The law does not require reporting the entire history of the property, but it is necessary to report any relevant event that reveals a structural or environmental risk,” explains lawyer Florence Iung in the medium.
The court sentences them to pay almost half a million euros to the buyers
Once in court, the justice explained that the key to the case was not in the floods, but rather the sellers’ intentional silence about a crucial detail. “This silence distorted the buyer’s consent,” explains the lawyer. If the new owners had known the truth, they probably would have negotiated the price or given up on the purchase.
Justice was clear about the facts and sentenced the sellers to return 400,000 euros, plus agency and notary fees, totaling 456,850 euros. The court acquitted the notary and the real estate agency, making it clear that all responsibility fell on the former owners, who accepted a “no claims” clause but omitted a fundamental piece of information for the purchase decision.