My spouse gets certain perks working for the company that she does. One of them is a free half hour of legal counsel. I called a lawyer yesterday and described the situation. He said he’d do a little research for me. He called back today and said that the law is not clear but that the courts do support asking the question. Huh? In other words, a court would hear the case and not just throw it out (I guess). Well, it was free advice.
I went down the Kenmore City Hall (which is in the middle of a strip mall, by the way) to ask my question (who should pay to have the utilities moved). I may have just pissed off the builder on the front lot. The planning department noticed that the existing water line was not on the builder’s plan and tagged his file with a Do Not Issue Permit Until Resolved sign. I guess it’s official now. Something will happen for real before he starts to build. The woman I spoke with gave me two avenues to go down. One, wait it out (the builder will have to move my utilities himself if order to build, and then try to bill me). Two, work it out (this may be the harder choice). City hall and PSE both felt like the builder on the front lot should pay for (or at least help pay for) moving the utilities. Neither would commit to saying so on paper.
Dhillon (the front lot owner/builder) said that he wants me to pay for and coordinate the moving of the utilities. He told me that Michael Poole (the guy who my spouse and I bought the house from and who split the lot) said he was going to take care of moving the utilities before he sold the lot with the house on it. I am now trying to contact Michael Poole to find out he thinks and if he can offer any advice. Maybe Dhillon should get Michael to pay for all this. That seems fair, but I’m biased.
Hmm. Yeah, seems to me that even if he made some sort of deal w/ the previous owner, if that deal was purely verbal and he didn't make sure that you were taking on that responsibility when you bought the place, then you're not responsible.
ReplyDeleteYou're smart getting the full story from your seller. The builder might just be bullshitting you. Maybe there was never any agreement.
I am with Matthew unless it is on the contract you bought the house with that deal is void. Verbal or non verbal it was between the previous owner and the builder. Details like that HAVE to be disclosed prior to sale or its lawsuit time. Don’t back down or fall in the little guilt trap, now if it is written down on a little piece of paper with your initials on it… It must be on the contract, I would seek paid legal advice before I put out a dime. It has to be in the buy sell agreement to be binding on you! Don’t worry about their story, if it’s not in the paperwork and this is the first your hearing about it then it doesn’t apply.
ReplyDeleteSue them. Sue them all. (mwah, haha,hah) But wait 3 years, and I'll do it gratis. Just because I'm SUCH the badass.
ReplyDelete