What is the risk of removing inspection contingency from home purchase agreement?

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What is the risk of removing inspection contingency from home purchase agreement?

We are considering buying a home and are
having trouble quantifying the risk/impact of
waiving the physical property contingencies
from our bid. We want to write as competitive
an offer as we can but want to be sure we
understand clearly what we are giving up, what
we stand to lose.

Asked on October 24, 2017 under Real Estate Law, California

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 6 years ago | Contributor

If a problem appears or is discovered during inspection, even if it is a "deal breaker" or finanically unsupportable for you, you will not be able to use it to get out of the purchase or at least as leverage to get some cost concessions; rather, without an inspection contingency, you will have to go through with the sale no matter what. Some things an inspection could uncover, like--
* asbestos
* serious or widespread mold
* "knob-and-tube" wiring
* foundation or structural issues
* a roof or furnace that needs to be replaced
* a decommissioned (but not removed, and possibly leaking) oil tank
--could easily cost many thousand, or even several tens of thousands, of dollars to remediate; you would be exposing yourself to those costs.


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