So, my partner and I decided to put an offer on a house last Friday. Turns out, the seller had four other offers but went with ours. When we first saw the place, it looked super clean and well-maintained. But then, we had an inspection done on Wednesday, and boy, oh boy, did we uncover a nasty surprise. The crawl space was infested with mold. The inspector even mentioned he could smell it a bit in the house itself. Yikes.
Now, here’s the kicker: our daughter has serious mold-related health issues. So, you can imagine my panic when we found out about this mold situation. I mean, we can’t risk her health just for a house, right? We spoke to our real estate agent and made it clear that we wanted to back out of the deal. But get this, he tells us that the law says we have to give the seller a chance to fix the mold issue. Ugh, bureaucracy at its finest.
The seller’s response? She feels “wronged” by our decision to bail on the deal. And get this, she’s refusing to give back our $6000 earnest money deposit. She claims that there was no mention of mold in the disclosure form she filled out. Yeah, right. It’s not like mold magically appears overnight, right? She’s basically saying tough luck to our daughter’s health concerns.
Now, here’s where things get murky. Is it even legal for her to keep our money like that? I mean, we’re dealing with a potentially hazardous situation here. Our agent mentioned that while it might be a crappy move on the seller’s part, it’s not technically against the law. Can you believe that? He’s been in the real estate game for a while and even he’s never seen something like this go down. Talk about a first for everyone involved.
And just to give you some context, we’re based in Indiana. Any advice or insights on how to navigate this sticky situation would be greatly appreciated. I mean, who knew house-hunting could turn into such a nightmare, right?