Real estate fraud
I recently purchased a house for a rental and it's not my first purchase of a home. I did buy it from a different state but I had my sister walk through it with me on video. I hired an inspector. I Knew it was a flip and I do know the good and bad of those. When I got the disclosure form from the seller they basically checked. I don't know on everything and said I didn't live there. And I definitely questioned that and so I required all the permits they pulled from the town. Fast forward a couple weeks after buying we got a lot of rain and I had water in the basement. I went outside to look under the deck because that is where the water was seeping in and looked under the deck which was about 3 ft high and found a layer of visqueen along the ground and up along the foundation. The deck supports are on top of the visqueen. Then I went to the town and pulled all the permits. That took me weeks and the sketchy things I found 🤬 basically I found the house was originally on the demolition list and the town could not tell me how it got off of the demolition list. The seller did not disclose that they had foundation repair on the sill plate and a below grade entry under the deck enclosed. That's exactly where the water is coming from. I GOT THE ENGINEERS REPORT ON THE BAD FOUNDATION SILL PLATE ADDRESSED TO THE SELLERS WHO HAD FIRED THERE PREVIOUS CONTRACTOR AND TAKEN OVER AS THE CONTRACTOR WHEN THE FOUNDATION GOT FIXED . AND THE TOWN NEVER INSPECTED THE FOUNDATION REPAIR, NOR THE DRAINAGE FOR THE BELOW GRADE ENTRY OR THE BACK FILLING. I can go on and on about multiple issues, the town did not expect correctly or the failed inspections. The town even inspected the deck 4 months later they built over the foundation and never inspected what they missed. My inspector never checked the structure of the deck because if he did he would have just leaned over and found the visqueen under the deck. And I'm not saying he would have known about the foundation but he would have had to note that on his inspection and that would have given me the ability to further investigate if I wanted to. The negligence of multiple people on this house. I have so much evidence. The foundation repair company even told me that the owner did not want them to do any of the waterproofing or backfilling that they would do it. This is complete fraud. I do not want just the waterproofing and drainage fixed. The deck is already sinking because I know there's no drainage and I know that they didn't backfill correctly and grade it correctly, because the grading goes straight towards the house. I am compiling estimates from grading companies, deck companies, water proofing companies. Just to begin with. I mean 20 years ago I bought a house with water issues in the basement. I don't shy away from that as long as I can figure out what to do about it and negotiate the price accordingly. I didn't have that option with this one. First, I'm livid at the town. Of course I can't sue them because they're not liable. I'm absolutely livid at my inspector and it doesn't even matter if he wouldn't have noticed the foundation. He's liable to inspect the deck structure all he had to do was lean over and note about the visqueen or by law he would have to state he couldn't access underneath the deck to inspect it.. which obviously he could because all I did was lean over and see it. His contract says I'm liable to get my money back only. But the seller I'm going after him.. any advice?