You’ve done your legal due diligence and checked the public document record at the County Recorder’s Office where you’re thinking of buying that vacation home. You found some interesting circumstances of the property you didn’t expect, including existing code violations. You correctly used this information to negotiate a reduction in your offer price to accommodate now-known impediments to the use and enjoyment of the property related to real estate code violations. You’ve done everything you know to do, so you should be good to close escrow, right?
Whoa there, cowboy! Not so fast!
Pre-Existing Code Violations Not Recorded at the County Recorder’s Office
In most geographies, you would be safe to close after reviewing the public document record at the County Recorder’s Office. However, practices surrounding the buying and selling of land are notoriously idiosyncratic and can be radically different depending on the State, and the County, where the property is located.
Suffice it to say that existing code violations don’t always get recorded at the County Recorder’s Office. However, this doesn’t mean that the new property owner won’t get stuck with the cost of remediation or a fine related to real estate code violations.
You can’t make this stuff up, and yet it happens.
The purchase or sale of real estate is complicated. With so much on the line, it’s better to be safe than sorry!
Timely Contract® Solutions
Buyers: Use TIER Plus® to perform the legal due diligence necessary to identify limitations to the use and enjoyment of a property, so that a market-based price can be determined before close of escrow. Get answers to your questions. Be prepared with legal options if adverse or unforeseen requirements related to real estate code violations are found.
Sellers: Use TIER Plus® to fully disclose limitations to the use and enjoyment of your property, and to substantiate your list price.
Use Timely Contract® to avoid common problems of the real estate transaction … and to sleep better at night!
This posting is not legal advice. Legal advice is based on specific facts. This information is necessarily general in nature.