Buyer's agent fumbles repair request

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Q: My husband and I recently bought a move-up home. During our inspection period, we were told that there were some problems with the furnace (the home has central heating). We got bids from an HVAC contractor who was recommended by our agent, and the bid was almost $2,000. The sellers agreed to do the work but wanted to use their own contractor, who agreed to do it at a lower cost. We didn't care who did it, as long as they were licensed -- and they were.

We closed escrow and moved in. Now that it's starting to get cool at night, we decided to just run the heater and see how it worked -- and it didn't work! We called the original contractor out and he said that only a couple of the problems that he originally found were fixed.

We asked our agent and she said that she can't do anything to help us because we didn't do a written request for repairs, but she never told us to make a written request. She just has an e-mail from the listing agent saying the sellers would do the work, and she said that won't stand up in small claims court against the sellers. What did we do wrong here?

A: So, let's talk about what should have happened in this situation. "You" should have issued a formal, written request for repairs to the seller, specifying the individual items you wanted them to have fixed. The seller, then, would have signed the request, agreeing to have the listed repairs completed by a licensed contractor.

When the repairs were complete, the sellers would have provided you with the invoice -- and any warranty on the repairs -- from the licensed contractor, documenting the repairs that were completed.

Additionally -- and this might have happened, in fact -- your contract to buy the property would have included a clause ensuring that you would have a home warranty plan at closing (most often, this is paid for by the sellers) to cover defects that didn't exist, to your knowledge, at the time you purchased the property. ...CONTINUED

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