A recent B.C. Supreme Court case favoured the buyer, who backed out a deal to purchase a mansion in Vancouver. She claimed she was misled by the seller and their agent when she asked why the seller was moving. Their answer was that the seller's daughter was switching schools. What they neglected to include in their answer, was the fact that she was forced to switch schools because of bad press surrounding the murder of her father, which took place on the property. Her father was allegedly a leader of the notorious "Big Circle Boys," a gang with roots in China. The buyer heard rumours about the murder after she removed conditions (back in 2009), and a simple Google search revealed the gruesome details. This story comes as welcome news to thousands of people who ask legitimate questions to a seller, and rely on the answers given; it shows you have recourse when the answers to your questions don't include the whole truth. On the other hand, it can take a very long time for justice to be served, and cost a lot of money - in this case, the buyer's $300,000 deposit was withheld for nearly 9 years. This also demonstrates how important it is to ask the questions that need asking. Would it matter to you if someone died in the property, or a crime occurred there, or a notorious criminal lived there? It's important to know what matters to you and to ask those questions. I remember one time asking a seller why they were moving, and we got a similar reply about changing schools which is actually a legit reason people move. But, when we checked them out on facebook we found the seller was trashing her own house and all its issues. Needless to say, we didn’t proceed with the purchase. If you're thinking of buying a property, a little online research never hurts. A few years ago one of our agents had clients interested in a house in Riverbend that was priced quite well for the area; when she googled the address she found the house was recently home to more than 1000 rabbits, that were seized by the Humane Society and her clients decided not to proceed, regardless of price. Are there any health concerns with the home you are aware of? This question could be clarified with a tag along such as "we are allergic to pet dander or mould" or "we have concerns about radon or vermiculite." If you're thinking of selling a property, have you had any issues with the home while you’ve owned it? Issues with the roof, electrical, water in the basement or other leaks?  Every home has issues, and sellers are required to disclose material latent defects, but we've seen cases where there is some confusion about what needs to be disclosed. In many cases, they may have had a material latent defect (MLD) that they remedied, no longer consider it an MLD, and don’t disclose it or authorize the disclosure of the remedied defect.  Remedied MLDs could include a basement crack that was filled, a sewer pipes repaired after a back up due to tree roots.

Whatever the case it is always best to let your agent your concerns, and it's worth asking some questions to try and figure out the real state of the property.

Posted by Liv Real Estate on
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Purchased a townhouse 10/2017.: We were told by builder, previous owner , other owners a fence would be built behind the property as other Townhouses will be built behind us !! We now find out through the Cityvof Stony Plain no fence will be built !?What can we do ??

Posted by Joyce on Wednesday, March 28th, 2018 at 5:42am

Since you're not paying a million dollars or more for a townhouse like most other places in Canada if the townhouse is freehold just put up a fence yourself.

Posted by Tony on Friday, April 6th, 2018 at 5:47am

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