Forum Archive: Posts by: cmcrossland

We are in the process of buying a house in Park Slope. The Engineer inspected the house today and found evidence of fire damage in the roof. The roof joists are quite heavily charred. The house has been renovated and the sellers said that they had no prior knowledge of the fire, which I find hard to believe, considering the level of charring on the joists was quite obvious. The sellers have renovated several houses in the area, so they’re not stupid. The Seller spoke to his attorney and amazingly he came up with a fire report, dating back to 1968 that the fire started in an upstairs kitchen. The Sellers are not prepared to open up the roof and repair the charred joists as they said this fire was 40 years ago and was signed off by the State. What do you think we should do? Would you ask for more money off the selling price and tackle the problem yourself? Would you get a 2nd opinion from another engineer? Would you walk away?