New owners help poorly written purchase contracts, which lack essential information about the actual state of the house . This is just a step away from claiming a property and getting a discount.
Procházkové words are confirmed by lawyers dealing with this issue. They agree that the seller has the obligation to surrender the purchased property to the buyer in the condition stipulated in the contract.
Contracts that do not protect
But there is often nothing specific about it, because realtors and individuals are abundantly using universal contracts or those they download from the internet. "Unfortunately, I have to say that I have a similar type of contract in practice very often. Perhaps too often we often pay for our lifetime savings or long-term savings, or we are indebted for years, " says lawyer Bohdan Hejduk and adds that the seller is responsible for the property in his own way and is responsible for ensuring that the contract matches the state of the house . Therefore, the contract should be adequately protected against the risks arising from this liability.
Beware of general formulations, responsibilities do not get rid of you
In practice, the seller attempts to discard his liability for defects in the property sold through one of the following formulations. "Buyer acquires real estate as it stands on the day of signing the purchase agreement" or "Real estate is left to the buyer as it stands and lies" or "Buyer has been able to find out all defects of the item in advance" or "Buyer was acquainted with technical (factual) state of the property ". " However, these vendors do not exempt those vendors from the property defects , at least according to the latest available case law. If a specific condition of the property is not included in the contract, it is legally considered to be in a state that the purchaser can reasonably expect from the real estate, " notes Bohdan Hejduk.
You can request a discount of up to 5 years
Currently, all hidden defects in properties sold under a purchase agreement concluded after January 1, 2014 can still be claimed. One key point of view must be clearly demonstrated, that a hidden defect at the time of sale already existed , but it only occurred during use of the building by the new owner. Even so, there are thousands of people still complaining about buying a house or flat, even though they are eligible for a claim. Instead, they invest more of their own money in repairs that they would not have to pay at all. They usually do not know or deny their claim to a dispute with the original owner.
"The claim of the house is not quite simple, however, in cooperation with the technical technicians it can be unequivocally proven that a hidden defect existed already at the time the real estate was sold. Then there is no problem for the seller to demand an additional discount, which is usually several hundred thousand crowns, " remarks Kateřina Procházková. This money can be used by new owners for repairs or anything else. What's more, practice shows that they usually agree on the amount of this discount without having to go through court proceedings.
How to prevent it
A similar problem has been solved abroad for many years. In order to avoid potential complaints for hidden defects, the vendor will have the right to analyze the state of the house, which will clearly identify the defects of the property. These will then be included in the purchase contract and taken into account in the price of the property. That's why the seller does not have to worry five years after selling a house or flat that he would become a similar case to thousands of people on the Czech real estate market.
Source: tz, edited editorially