{"id":19575,"date":"2026-01-26T04:19:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T12:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=19575"},"modified":"2026-01-27T20:37:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T04:37:24","slug":"seller-didnt-disclose-water-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/seller-didnt-disclose-water-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seller of My Home Failed to Disclose Water Damage. What Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019re deep into the honeymoon phase with your new house \u2014 picking out wall colors, rearranging furniture, playing with your d\u00e9cor options \u2014 when suddenly, disaster strikes!<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps you discover discoloration in some tucked-away corner, or you hear mysterious dripping sounds in your walls, or a sudden rainstorm reveals a leaky roof. Once you investigate, it becomes clear that this water damage problem is an old one, and your seller should have disclosed it when you bought the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"geo-cta widget-cta widget-cta--content     widget-cta--dark widget-cta--dark-blue-gradient\">\n    <div class=\"widget-element--content\">\n        <div class=\"widget-element--content-header\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"homelight logo\" class=\"widget-element--logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/ccprototypev5\/images\/logo-small-cta.png\" width=\"106\" height=\"25\" \/>\n        <\/div>\n        \n                <h3 class=\"cta-headline widget--bold\">Unsure How to Sell a Home With Water Damage?<\/h3>\n                        <p>Sell your house as-is through HomeLight&#8217;s Simple Sale platform \u2014 it&#8217;s OK if it needs some work! We provide cash offers for homes in almost any condition. Skip many of the hassles of selling the traditional way and get started today.<\/p>\n        \n                <div class=\"widget-element--buttons\">\n            <a data-type=\"In Content CTA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/simple-sale\/quiz#\/qaas=0\/\" class=\"cta-click-track widget-element--button\">Request Offer<\/a>\n        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s what happened to one of Maryland-based agent Greg Cullison\u2019s clients: \u201cI had a buyer who bought a renovated home from a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/sell-house-to-flipper\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">house flipper<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the seller signed a disclaimer that there were no latent defects. Shortly after moving in, the buyer\u2019s child became ill and, after a couple of visits to the doctor, it was determined that the property had mold.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This seems like an obvious failure: The seller didn\u2019t disclose existing water despite knowing about it, period. But unfortunately, it\u2019s not enough to just know in your bones that your seller failed to disclose pre-existing water damage. If you intend to collect from the seller, you have to be able to prove it.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s walk through what it\u2019ll take to build your case\u2026and whether or not it\u2019s worth pursuing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you just buy a new house only to discover that your seller didn&#8217;t disclose water damage? Here\u2019s what you need to know to take action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":54318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[243,322],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contracts","category-logistics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Seller Didn&#039;t Disclose Water Damage: What Now?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you just buy a new house only to discover that your seller didn&#039;t disclose water damage? Here\u2019s what you need to know to take action.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/seller-didnt-disclose-water-damage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Seller of My Home Failed to Disclose Water Damage. What Now?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you just buy a new house only to discover that your seller didn&#039;t disclose water damage? Here\u2019s what you need to know to take action.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/seller-didnt-disclose-water-damage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HomeLight Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gohomelight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-26T12:19:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-28T04:37:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hl-blog.homelight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Untitled-design-2025-02-18T212740.555.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"564\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christine Bartsch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CEBartsch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gohomelight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christine Bartsch\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Seller Didn't Disclose Water Damage: What Now?","description":"Did you just buy a new house only to discover that your seller didn't disclose water damage? 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