Vancouver Real Estate - See the Bee
Posted August 18th, 2008 in Buying or Selling, Real Estate, Real Estate Stuff
Did You?
Stop and reflect. Did you see the bee at first glance, the second or did someone tell you it was there and pointed it out to you?
Defects
It would be unusual to not find a home, apartment or condo without some form of defect. After all, we live in an imperfect world. Some defects are easily seen and noted, others may not be so easy to discern.
Defects that may affect you when you purchase or sell a property usually fall into two categories, latent and patent. Our bee will serve as an example for both.
Seeing the Bee
Looking at the echenasia, if at first glance you saw the bee, that would be considered as a classification of defect referred to being a patent defect.
It’s there in front of you and you recognized it immediately as being an issue. An example of this when inspecting a home is finding that the roof is leaking resulting in stains on the ceiling of the home. You saw the stains, you understood and your inspector confirmed that the roof was leaking. If you buy that home with this knowledge the courts would probably disallow a claim under this provision.
Not Seeing the Bee
If you looked at the flower and didn’t see the bee, needed someone point it out to you, or the person selling you the flower didn’t tell you it was there would cause this to be categorized as a latent defect.
When buying a home be sure to check and recheck elements such as title, rights of way and city hall for building permits. It’s not the bee’s fault, but sometimes the guy selling you the flower will put a matching costume on the bee thereby actively concealing its presence. This would constitute a form of misrepresentation of a latent defect.
Stung
Caveat emptor means you assume the responsibility to take caution to ensure that your inspector, lawyer and Realtor® check every possible document and structural element of land and building to ensure that all defects are known to you. Nobody likes getting stung.
Got a Vancouver Real Estate question? Always happy to answer it. Call or send me an email or twitter me @yattermatters.
Larry
