the wasserblawg

Sometimes I long for the good old days of caveat emptor in Real Estate transactions. Ya pays your money, ya takes yer chances. That sort of thing. Still applies here in Illinois of course, but we have all sorts of disclosure laws now that have subsumed that ancient legal doctrine. We must disclose known problems with lead paint, mold, possibilities of radon, heating costs, and certain specified "major" material defects. It has reached the point that the number of pages of disclosure forms exceed the number of pages in the standard Chicago Association of Realtors form contracts! Kinda takes all the fun out of real estate deals, but for the fact that sellers often play cute and fail to make necessary disclosures - and then get sued when their Buyers find out. Fun for my colleagues, the litigators I suppose. Troublesome for the rest of us. So what happens, lets say, when a seller discloses a problem to his buyer, the buyer never experiences anything to suggest that the probl...