15 Sep Did you know that you benefit from a warranty against hidden defects?

After searching for a long time, Myriam finally finds the house of her dreams: a single-family home with a garage and an in-ground swimming pool. Once the inspection completed, she decides to sign the deed of sale and she moves into the property with her two daughters. A year later, everything starts to fall apart. While renovations are being done to the house, she notices that the foundations are crumbling, water is infiltrating the garage, and the pool is leaking. She is shocked to learn that the repairs will cost her tens of thousands of dollars. Yet, no one had made her aware of these problems at the time of the purchase. This could be a case of hidden defects. Such a situation arises if the defect was not apparent at the time of the sale, it was unknown to the buyer, but it existed at the time of the purchase.

Did you know that Myriam benefits from a warranty against hidden defects? In other words, she is protected by law. The warranty against hidden defects, also called “legal warranty of quality”, applies to the building and everything attached to it. In Myriam’s case, the garage and the pool would therefore be under warranty. In fact, the seller is liable for hidden defects discovered in the building, although he may not have been aware of such defects when the sale took place. Myriam can therefore ask the seller to either fix the hidden defects or to reimburse the cost of repairs to be done on the property.

In order to proceed, Myriam must notify the seller in writing about the hidden defects in the building, within a reasonable time after the discovery of the defects.

However, if the deed of sale stated that it was a sale without warranty of quality against hidden defects, Myriam would have no recourse against the seller.

If you are in such a situation, please contact us to learn more about hidden defects and how to protect your rights.