Previous Owner Potentially Lied about Septic System
Trying to keep this story short but not leave out anything.
I purchased a house for sale by owner in August of 2025, I was told by other investors in the area always have the septic system checked, so I paid the local health department to inspect the propertys' septic system.
The previous owner 'got' the report and said it passed everything, so I said great and proceeded with the purchase. The whole trust but verify went out the door here, definitely a mistake on my part.
Fast forward to today, we are having several septic issues, and I decided that I would have to bite the bullet and replace it all, we went to get a soil sample done and when the tester spoke with the county Health department, they said that they actually condemned the septic system in the house back in August (when the report was done) and that it needed to be addressed prior to selling the house.
Basically the previous owner lied to me about it, because she probably didnt want to lose the sale.
We did everything at a lawfirm/title company, I am wondering if there is any chance of me suing her since she blatantly lied, it is all in a Email string.
I am working with the firm to get all the documents that I signed and I am working with the health department to get the official report that I paid for prior to buying.
Canton IL is where the property is located (Fulton Co)
TIA
Edit update 4/14
I have a call on 4/15 with a real estate lawyer, I requested the docs from the health department, and I received all of the docs related to buying the property which I forwaded to the lawyer.
Update 4/15
Spoke with lawyer, we are still waiting for the inspection from the health department, but he says that with the email stating it was 'passing' and the actual inspection saying it is condemned (whenever we get it) this is a clear cut case for fraud and we can easily move forward to next steps.
Update 4/17
Report showed up but I'm a little confused the comments say it does not meet compliance but the check box says it does
I forwarded it to the lawyer