I bought a house in Minnesota last year.  We found one problem in the
house: There is no heating/ac in one room on 2nd floor.  I found that
from the basement someone (one of the previous owner of the house)
blocked the heating/ac pipe because they made a french door on kitchen
and that door was on the way.  Instead of re-routing the heating/ac
pipe they blocked it from the basement. Therefore one room has no
heating and air conditioning.  Other rooms are O.K. because heat/ac is
comming from another pipes.

Home inspector (whom I paid $275) never told me this problem in his 10
page report.  Moreover, Previous owner never mentioned in their home
disclouser when they sold me last year.  We just came to know this
problem because we never used that room before.

Now after contacting home ower and inspector both of them are refusing to
pay to for another pipe that will cost approximately $800 dollars. My
question is:

1) do I have any case against them if I take them to conciliation
court? We have not signed for arbitration.

2) If yes, Whom should I take to court owner or inspector or both?

3) Can you give me some real cases related to this isuue and what were
the results?

4) what are my chances of wining the case?

I am waiting for some one to respond me before I make my decision.

Thanks

I'm not posting this as an answer, simply because I'm not a
lawyer--and I'm not sure you'll like my answer. Also, Google Answers
is not intended to substitute for informed professional legal advice.

Typically, real estate purchase contracts limit the length of time in
which you can sue the seller to one year. If it is past the one year
limit, nothing else in your answer matters--you simply can't sue.
Sorry.

Second, Home Inspectors in most states are not licenced. They also
specifically disclaim any and all liability in preparing their report.
Again, $275 not well spent. Sorry.

Also, while the home-owners can not LIE about anything, and should
disclose "latent defects" in the home (that means things that you
could not see by yourself, like a leaky roof that only leaks after 48
hours of rain), they do not have to point out obvious issues like
missing heat-registers. Again, this is most likely a case of you not
noticing the problem--not a case of them failing to tell you about it.

Legolas-ga

I'd echo the above comments, the principle underpinning property
transactions in common law systems is 'caveat emptor', let the buyer
beware! Although, if the fault could have been identified by enquiries
raised by the practitioner who did the legal work on buying the
property then you could always thinking about suing him. Get LEGAL
ADVICE.

Dear Dreamer,

Like the others, I am posting this as a comment,
since I am not familiar with Minnesota law.

In California, there is a rule about disclosure.
But, MN will have different statutes.

However, take a look at your small claims court
(or equivalent) rules. 

You could probably sue the inspector in small claims
court and get a judgement against him. Typically, 
whether licensed or not, there's an implied warranty
that he will give you useful information. 

Filing in small claims court rarely costs much. 
Some courts have evening sessions, so you may not
have to lose time from work.  So, even if you don't
get a judgement, you don't lose much.

But judges, or commissioners, in small claims courts
tend to rule in your favor on things like this if at
all possible. 

Best
Your TaxMama-ga