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I have a question. I just bought a house in December. It's a Fha loan a Appraisal was done and he marked that the roof was good. Our insurance company came out also and as they put it and inspected the roof as they also put it it was fine. Now a month later we have water damage called the insurance company to put in the claim, insurance adjuster came out got up on the roof and said that the roof is in bad shape and has to be replaced. He said that the homeowners but the roof on wrong. The vent pipe has 4 inches of lead gone of it, the wirley birds are barley on and have to be replaced the valley metal is completley rusted out. Then i got the shock, he told me they are not going to pay for a new roof that was going to be left up to us because this is considered pre excisding. I am so upset. I asked him wait a minute you all inspected this roof before i bought it and said it was good. I was then told that they do not go up on the roof to inspect. So now i have taaken a look at the appraiser report he also stated that the roof was fine. Can anyone help me? FHA loan so would they have gone up on they roof? Can i hold anyone responsible for this roof?
Patricia
First you are posted in the wrong forum. I would ask the Moderator to move you to the real estate forum.
Second, the appraiser for your FHA loan is not a home inspector so their opinion was just that, an opinion. FHA is not trying to warrant your roof or any other part of your property.
Third, the same applies to the first person from the insurance company that viewed the roof.
Fourth, did you have a home inspection conducted? What comments did the home inspector give you on the condition of the roof?
Nonetheless, I don't think you can hold anyone responsible for the condition of your roof.
Did you have an independent house inspection done before you purchased the home? Appraisers and insurance inspectors do general walk arounds. An adjuster does a more in depth check and if he finds old damage due to non-maintenance then its a non-covered event. Call them back and ask for a second adjuster to come out and ask what parts of the damage would be covered outside of the pre-existing issue. That dollar amount minus you deductable may make your request moot. Usually a good insurance company will only cover the damage to a roof, but not the entire roof. On average a roof gets replaced every twenty or so years and is not covered by homeowners insurance.
You may have an issue with the sellers if they represented the roof was good and knew it was not. However you would need to prove they knew there was a problem.
You are likely to have a hard time holding the FHA and insurance inspectors accountable. They inspect for their purposes and benefit, not for yours.
Your home inspector should have caught this. however the home inspection contracts usually have all kinds of disclaimers. For $200, they cannot warranty you will have no problems with your house. Usually their disclaimers say you can get your $200 back and that is it. Still you may have a claim with the home inspector notwithstanding the disclaimer (depends on your state).
I have never seen an insurance policy that will cover worn out parts of a house. Frequently they will cover "resulting damage" Sometimes you can get a broad interpretation of resulting damage that may cover things like re-sheeting, replacing insulation, mold remediation and drywall repair. Sometimes not. It depends on your policy language.
What is the cost? Can you just repair the roof so it will not leak until you save up enough to re-roof?
Be aware, there are lots of costs to home ownership. the purchase price is only the beginning. A houseneeds nearly constant maintenance and repairs. Roof and gutters are only a portion of the costs, paint, termite damage, plumbing and wiring problems, settlement, worn out fixtures or hardware. . . all kinds of things reatuire attention and expenditures. If you put things off, it will cost you twice as much later.
It sounds as though the inspector overlooked the condition of the roof in order to get the sale approved. It's one of the downsides to using FHA financing - they can't be too critical or else it will kill the deal.
Theoretically, with an FHA loan the house needs to be in good condition to protect low income buyers from getting stuck with expensive repairs. Obviously it doesn't always work that way!
Do you have some kind of home warranty or just insurance?
He said that the homeowners but the roof on wrong.
How does he know the homeowners installed the roof? Maybe a company that did it installed it wrong. If the house is pretty new it should come with a 10yr warranty. If not, you're are SOL.
A real estate lawyer or maybe a reputable real estate agent might be able to help to figure out if the seller or inspector are liable.
The "materials" would have a warranty, not installation. We had a similar problem years ago. The shingles were installed incorrectly and many were broken. We tried the warranty route but, it didn't apply because they were installed incorrectly. The roof was sound, but because some were broken and per inspection the buyers insisted the house roof needed replaced. Our realtor helped us find an independent guy who gave us a pretty good price.
We've bought a couple houses over the years, none came with a warranty. I agree you issue most likley is with the sellers.
I've had several hundred, maybe into the thousands, of houses inspected by FHA inspectors and it's a joke. They take a pic of the house to prove it's still standing. They check for the required bedrooms per contract, a working commode, and a place to cook- that's it. The inspections takes about 2 minutes. VA is different but FHA is an inspection I never worried about and have never has an issue with an FHA inspection. If your insurance company came out for an inspection, he obviously didn't look at the roof since the valley flashing didn't just rust over night. But that doesn't put any liability on the insurance company. The H/O may not have known of any roof issues and in their disclosure probably marked it as a no issue. That doesn't make them liable either. You'd have to prove in court that they knew the roof was bad and were deceptive in selling you the house. Court costs alone would pay for a good portion of the roof. Even IF you won doesn't mean the seller has any monies for you to collect. Hiding assets or co-mingling assets are a common thing in our way of doing business in the USA. So to cut to the real answer, figure on paying for a new roof out of your pocket and learn that the next time, have the house inspected by a licensed or certified home inspector. Just think what that 2-300 bucks would have saved you now.
And a lot of home inspectors won't get on a roof nor will it only cost 2-300 bucks. It's more like double that for a basic home on a slab.
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