Woman buys land from PennDOT to build house, then finds out previous owner sold

Started by ZLoth, November 10, 2024, 10:04:39 AM

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ZLoth

From WPXI:

Woman buys land from PennDOT to build house, then finds out previous owner sold it due to landslide
QuoteA woman bought land from PennDOT and built a house, only to find out PennDOT had purchased the land from the previous owner because of a landslide.

Chief Investigator Rick Earle has been digging into how this could have happened for the past few months.

Donna Schwartzbauer purchased the land from PennDOT and built a house, only to find out that PennDOT had purchased the land from the previous owner because of an unstable hillside.
FULL ARTICLE HERE
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!


Rothman

Sounds like there was a failure on her part to evaluate the land.  There's a good reason why people in some states are even required to hire their own inspectors when purchasing property.

She saw cheap land and jumped at the "opportunity."

If PennDOT failed to disclose what they were legally required to, hopefully they are held responsible for that as well.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

ZLoth

If the land was condemned, why wasn't it properly flagged at the county records level?
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

jeffandnicole

"Even though Schwartzbauer bought the property as is, she said PennDOT never told her about Joswiak's house and all of the problems."

Sounds like someone doesn't understand what "as is" means.

Also sounds like someone didn't do any sort of research on the property. A simple title search would've revealed a previous home there just 30 years ago.

And when the contractor did find the old foundation...the property owner didn't look into that?

A good engineer would've looked at the full property to determine what else needed to be done to put up proper retaining walls and to curtail water runoff. Or would've told the homeowner the ground isn't stable. This person didn't get a good engineer.

Sounds like we're only getting a small part of the story here. The property owner bought cheap and went cheap. When you buy as is...everything you find is on you, and no doubt the signed paperwork at settlement covered everyone from this problem.



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