If I decide to buy a property, is the seller required to tell me about any negatives about the property?

What a seller is required to tell you will depend upon whether or not the seller is someone who is in the business of selling real estate or someone who owns the property as their own home. If it is the normal homeowner situation, the seller is not required to disclose anything other than that the buyer has a right to inspect the property for dangerous levels of lead paint. Silence does not constitute a basis for claiming fraud or misrepresentation even though the seller may have knowledge of some weakness in the property and fails to disclose it. You can always ask the seller to make representations in the purchase and sale agreement, some of which the seller may or may not be willing to make. If the seller does make a representation and you rely on it, you will have a right to sue the seller for fraud if it turns out that that representation was in fact not true and the seller knew or could have determined that it was not true by investigating the facts. If the seller is the builder, or these days perhaps more likely a bank, and if it has knowledge of some fact that you would want to know before you made a decision to buy, the seller could have liability under our consumer protection statute in Massachusetts by failing to disclose that fact to you. However with the “banks” these days are usually Wall Street investor pools so there is little likely hood that they would have knowledge about the property that you would not have after you have completed investigation into whether or not you wish to buy the property.
 

If you have questions about this or any other legal matter, please contact Tom Bennett at (617) 531-6574 or tvb@barronstad.com.