Buying an Estate Sale

Do you mind if any one died in the unit before?

Your lawyer should have explained the seller's representations and warranties. It's all about what you negotiate.

Just get an inspector to check the unit well. Managing agent can tell you about any leaks TO other units and residual liability from the unit you are buying. In many cases, you may not even know about a minor leak for months. This is all a part of home ownership.

But do this BEFORE signing the purchase and sale contract.

There was a case down on Grand St which was an estate sale because the owner had been murdered in a home invasion and the buyers found out during the Coop Board interview when they were asked how they felt about moving into the unit under the circumstances.

Can't leave us hanging like that. What happened? Did the buyers try and back out?

Not sure about NY real estate disclosure policies, but in LA, the seller would be required to disclose something like that.

I think they tried to back out but I don't remember if they did. Courts have fairly consistently ruled against disclosure suits, especially in NY which is a fairly "buyer beware" state. And considering how much Coop Boards are sanitizing their minutes these days, we are seeing buyer's attorneys asking for more and more seller's representations in contract riders.

Some times the buyers attorneys get stupid in asking for representations. I have had buyers attorney ask to confirm in a prewar building that is there was no lead paint. I had to tell the buyer’s attorney that it is a stupid question for a pre-war. The answer is obviously there was lead paint at some point of time in a pre-war. Had questions about any building leaks in the past 5 years. How the hell will I know or keep track? The answer was via buying broker that if the attorney wants to waste time go away or resubmit must have disclaimers.

This just came up on a deal we were working last week: the buyer's attorney wanted a representation on bedbugs going back 2 years. The law requires a representation for 1 year. So how is the seller going to get a representation out of the managing agent covering 2 years? (NB these cover not just the seller's unit).

I had the same attorney ask that as well. I simply said that I can give disclaimer about my unit and no knowledge of bed bugs in the building but I have no clue what happens inside the other units. They were fine with it.