About 18 months ago I got a call from a listing agent I do some repairs for. She wanted an estimate for some repairs on a 1920's house she had a contract on. I was not going to do the repairs as the buyer wanted the money for the repairs rather than having the repairs done. The estimate was about $5000. One of the larger items was replacing the knob & tube wiring in the attic that was covered with insulation. The house closed as planned.

Last month I got a call to inspect the same house for a buyer. I did the inspection and found the very few of the previous repairs had been done. This included the K&T in the attic. I told my buyer and their agent about the K&T being known to the seller when they bought the house 18 months ago. The seller had not disclosed the problem on the disclosure.

The buyer agent called the previous listing agent to confirm that the current owners (now the sellers of the house) knew about the K&T and she confirmed that they did. The sellers are saying they did not know about it.

The paper trail consists of their inspectors report, my estimate for the repairs, and all all of the emails between the previous listing and buyer agent.

I am not sure how this will turn out but the current listing agent is very concerned that her clients lied on the disclosure.

My point is that it is not always the agent that is a crook. It is usually the seller.