Based on a true, current situation; I’ll provide additional details as requested and as the thread develops.
Immediately behind our house a major home reconstruction/teardown has been in progress for 5 years. Prior house bought for $575K, new home listed for $1.6 mill. The land is such that A LOT of the neighborhood’s surface water drains through that area (as well as my back yard.) The guy who used to live there often got water in his basement, and was very concerned about keeping water away from his house as best he could. Our main concern was that the new construction not result in more water in our backyard.
This developer comes in and decides to build a new home 2-3x as large as the previous one, including a sub-basement lower than the existing one. We recommended to the developer and his proposed buyers that they install some drainage along our property line while excavating. They decline to do so, but instead, when excavating for the new foundation they crack a chunk out of an unplatted drainage tile at least 1’ in diameter. We told the village and the developer, as well They pour the foundation and when it rains we watch (and photo) the water pouring out of the pipe into their new foundation. The new lowest level collects standing water. Instead of repairing the pipe, they just backfill.
Things go bad for the developer, the buyers flee, and 4 years later it is in foreclosure. As far as we knew, for major parts of that time there was water standing in the sub-basement. We got less water than ever in our yard, because it was instead ending up in that basement. There were all kinds of other aspects to the shoddy construction I won’t go into right now. But this spring the bank started to make improvements to get it sold, including a nice drainage system right where we had recommended it 5 years earlier.
Someone is interested in buying the house. What, if anything, do you tell them of what you know of the history of this project?
If the bank constructs the drainage system, the point seems to be a bit moot of what happened in the past. If the drainage system doesn’t solve the problem, then it might be something to discuss with the buyer. But from the past experience with the previous potential buyers of that lot, they’d already know.
How would the discussion come about? If the buyers asked you, then you might want to tell them the whole story, and they might already know it.
Would you have to go out of your way to talk with them?
If it were me and I just happened by them, I might tell them the whole story just as a point of interest. It might be reassuring to them to know that the bank is working in their best interest to do the right thing in terms of the drainage problem.
You might ask the selling agent what they have been told and what is on the disclosure. If the problems are in the disclosure, or if the agent assures you they know of the history and know of the upgrades, then I wouldn’t worry about running over there to scare off potential buyers. As you know, having a vacant home or an underpriced home in your neighborhood is not so hot for the value of your property.
My friends bought a house they would not have bought had they known about the water problems. After it all went pear-shaped for them, only then did neighbors start saying “yeah the previous owner totally knew about these problems.” My friends ended up going to court against the previous owners for deception (disclosure was incomplete) and then the real estate company (for not doing their homework). Unfortunately my friends lost - due to lack of funds for fighting a huge real estate company - and they will be forever unhappy with their purchase.
Anyway my point is to make sure the seller knows what’s up and is representing the property properly - IF there is still actually a problem. You don’t know that there’s actually still a problem.
Here’s what I would do in your situation. If a prospective buyer (or an agent/lawyer/whoever representing a prospective buyer) asked me about the property, I’d tell them everything I know (I see no reason not to). Otherwise, I’d do nothing (i.e., I wouldn’t seek out the prospective buyer to tell him this stuff).
One thing is, we really shouldn’t have known about the internal condition of the house while under construx. I’m pretty confident we were trespassing. And I didn’t want to be in a position where the bank could accuse us of interfering with their sale. Also, I kinda felt we did our job by informing the village. A diligent search should have turned something up. And I didn’t want to say too much one way or the other, as I didn’t want it to color our future relations.
I haven’t talked to them yet. A week or so ago my wife was working in the yard and said hello. Being pleasant towards prospective new neighbors. The wife said something like she was concerned about any water problems. My wife did not say that we knew there was water in there during the construction. But she did say the previous owner was very concerned about his water situation, observed that a lot of water drained through that area, said the new swale really seemed to help, and said that was definitely something they might want to check out.
The last week or so there have been several downpours. What surprised me is that the people did not come out during or after any of them to check out the drainage. Yesterday they were there again. My wife again said hi. They had bought it - and were disappointed to find water in their sub-basement.
Forgive me, I’m in a bit of a goofy mood today, but your post struck me as funny.
When I originally answered your OP, I assumed that you, as a legal professional, had given all the pertinent facts and weighed all the legal ramifications before you asked the question.
But then I read this:
I don’t know what the legal ramifications of these actions are, but will you be telling us in future posts that you did ritual goat sacrifices on their property or that you intentionally drained water from your property to theirs?
Because if there’s more incriminating information out there, I want to change my answer to: just smile politely and don’t mention any dead bodies.
