Jean Benedett-matich

PLEAE AVOID THIS UNSCRUPULOUS AGENT Jean was the seller's agent for a row house we purchased last October in Washington, DC. When we viewed the property, we noticed that there was a stale smell in the home and that there were air fresheners and fans throughout. We thought the home smelled like moth balls. Through our realtor, we asked Jean about the moth-ball smell; she told us that she didn't know anything about a moth ball smell and that perhaps previous tenants had smoked in the home; we took her at her word and decided we could remediate smell from previous residents. Weeks later, after the home was under contract, she revealed to our realtor that she had placed the air fresheners in the home to mask pot smoke. This information would have been helpful to us when we inquired about the home's smell. After a few weeks in the row house, we realized that the smoke was coming from one of our next-door neighbors, who smoke almost constantly. Our neighbors on the other side shared that previous residents in our home (who were tenants) were not smokers, but had repeatedly complained to Jean (who was the property manager at this home for two years when it was a rental) about a smell coming in from the neighbors who smoke. We realized after moving in that someone had placed velcro patches on all of the vents in the home, probably so the vents could be covered and prevent the smell from coming in. We expect that Jean knew about the smoke infiltration and used the air fresheners and fan when she was showing the home to conceal the actual value of the property. When we reached out to Jean's brokerage, they acknowledged that no one would want to live in a home with this problem but asserted that they do not have liability . Thus, our options are to either (1) live in a home that smells like smoke; (2) sue our neighbors; (3) sue the brokerage for Jean's misrepresentation of the home's value; or (4) pay for a $20,000 renovation to the home to seal the party wall. So much for our home purchase being a good investment. It is too late for us to be safe from this realtor's unscrupulous selling practices, but we hope this information will be useful to others.