laniganpl.com/2014/08/11/flori... (Winter Park Florida) Real estate lawyer Eric Lanigan talks about disclosure of mold issues in homes.
Many times people say to me well you know I’m going to have a home inspection or I had a home inspector go through the house. The key point there is how much can you rely on those. You need to go over very very carefully exactly what the inspector will actually inspect. I have seen many where they have exclusions where we do no inspections and we render no opinion as to mold issues. Some will have other exclusions. Some of them have so many exculpatory clauses that in the end they’re not liable for anything. You wonder well what are they actually doing and the answer is well pretty close to nothing. Because they certainly aren’t making themselves liable or putting themselves on the hook for anything.
The other thing is the home inspectors are almost always chosen by the realtors. Very rarely do I ever find out about someone who bought a home and said well I want so and so to be my home inspector. It’s always whoever the realtor brought to the table and what that usually tells you is who does that realtor have a good relationship with. And what’s one of the most sensitive things that a home inspector has to be careful of and that’s not to be branded a deal killer. Because if you’re branded a deal killer in the real estate community you’re going to be looking for a new career because your days as a home inspector are over.
There’s an old Latin phrase caveat emptor let the buyer beware which has never been more applicable than it is in real estate transactions especially real estate transactions in the state of Florida. Some states have wiggled away at caveat emptor. Florida has not done much. And I’m not necessarily a proponent of the government coming in and regulating every little word and sentence that people say. I think there’s a validity to we’re all grown ups let’s take care of ourselves. Let’s do what we need to do and don’t always think that some governmental agency or somebody else is going to take care of us.
So as you’re going through the process you just need to dig, dig dig and go through the process and be constantly skeptical and suspicious. As lawyers often say hope for the best plan for the worst. If you take those steps you remember the phrase caveat emptor and you have that phrase going through your mind as you move through every phase of the transaction then there’s an extremely high likelihood that whatever problems there are they will get resolved before you ever get to the closing table.
If you have questions that you need to get answers to, contact real estate attorney Eric Lanigan of Lanigan and Lanigan by calling 407-740-7379 for a meeting in the offices located in (Winter Park, Florida).
If you like this video and found it helpful, you should watch another real estate video on the Lanigans KZread channel: "Help for Foreign Investors Who Want to Buy Florida Real Estate" • Help for Foreign Inves...