Months after a Dallas County couple listed their house in early 2004, they called a foundation repair company. Prospective buyers had commented on the sloping floors, the sellers later said, and they wanted to know what it would cost to “correct the slope.”
The written “Proposal for Foundation Repair” priced the job at $6,950: “19 concrete double pilings” to raise the front wall, the front right corner, the front left wall and the garage wall to “a reasonably level position.” The estimator later testified the house was “out of tolerance and needed to be lifted.”
The sellers did not have the work done. They ended their listing agreement, hired the husband’s sister-in-law as their new listing agent and signed a new seller’s disclosure notice. The first notice had asked about written foundation reports. The new one asked only about known defects, and for the foundation they said they knew of none…