CHARLESTON – West Virginia’s Revenue Secretary and his wife have filed a lawsuit alleging the sellers of their home did not disclose known water issues before they purchased it.
Dave and Nadia Hardy filed their complaint in Kanawha Circuit Court against Realcorp LLC, Edward and Susan Maier, Kanawha Valley Engineering & Home Inspection LLC and Dennison Land & Development LLC.
Dave Hardy also is an attorney and former Kanawha County Commissioner. Ed Maier is chairman of General Corporation and of The Maier Foundation, a education-focused philanthropic agency based in Charleston.
According to the complaint, the Hardys signed a purchase agreement for their home in Charleston with the Maiers subject to the property passing an inspection conducted by a third-party provider. The Maiers were being represented by Realcorp.
Kanawha Valley Engineering & Home Inspections performed the inspection on January 18, 2019. The report did not note the existence of any water problems in the crawl space.
On March 28, 2019, Realcorp provided a “Seller’s Property Condition Disclosure.” On April 24, 2019, the parties closed on the transaction.
In November 2019, the plaintiffs were contacted by Brett Hodgdon of Kanawha Valley Engineering because a neighbor had water in their crawl space.
“After reinspecting the plaintiff’s crawl space on that November date, Hodgdon and Kanawha Valley Engineering seemed to attempt to reassure the plaintiffs that there was no water in their crawl space,” the complaint states.
But it then says on November 28, 2019, Dave Hardy “found significant water intrusion into the crawl space.”
The next month, the Hardys consulted with a structural engineer to determine how to address the water intrusions. The engineer suggested a full examination of the footer drains with a removal of the wooden deck for both diagnostic and remedial reasons.
In January 2020, the wooden deck was removed, and the footer drains and rubber foundation membrane were replaced. It was recommended the deck be replaced with a concrete patio to redirect water away from the home.
In February 2020, the diagnostic and remediation efforts continued.
“The vapor barrier under the home was removed and a curious washtub-sized rectangularly-cut hole into the earth (serving as some sort of reservoir) was discovered,” the complaint states. “The hole was, in turn, monitored by the plaintiffs, and it was learned that the hole would fill with water and from time-to-time spill out from the reservoir with leaching out under the plastic and across the crawlspace, all after the occurrence of significant rainfalls.”
During the process, the plaintiffs learned their floor joists had been cut at some point, a structural defect also missed by Kanawha Valley Engineering during the inspection.
“Plaintiffs hypothesize that defendants Maier had actual and direct knowledge of the presence of water in the crawl space, inasmuch as they had disclosed the particular defect in a 2014 seller property condition disclosure,” the complaint states. “The property then (in 2014) did not sell and stayed on the market until the Maier defendants removed the listing.
“The plaintiffs have no specific information at this time as to whether or not (or the extent to which) the defendants were of the opinion that their earlier written disclosure of the water problems contributed to the failure of their attempt to sell the home in 2014, etc.”
Still, the plaintiffs say that 2014 disclosure was incorrect because it said the problem had been corrected.”
The Hardys say Realcorp and the Maiers knowingly did not disclose the known history of the water in the crawl space. In addition, they say Realcorp and the Maiers attempted to further conceal the existence of water in the crawl space from prospective clients by hiding it under layers of plastic.
They also say the Maiers and Realcorp had Dennison Land & Development helped conceal the issue. Dennison had developed the homes and much of the infrastructure in the neighborhood.
In addition to the layers of plastic, they say the defendants also worked to conceal the defects by dusting lime to hide mold and mildew odors and painted the wood framing under the first floor and in the crawl space to retard the growth of mold and mildew.
Also, they say Hodgdon had inspected the home in 2011 and noted water in the crawl space.
The Hardys accuse the defendants of breach of contract, fraud, constructive fraud and negligence. They seek compensatory damages, special damages, general damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
Dennison is the only defendant to answer the complaint so far. It denies the allegations and seeks to be dismissed from the case.
The Hardys are being represented by Joshua Martin of The Martin Law Firm in Nitro and David R. Carr of Charleston. Dennison is being represented by David P. Cook Jr. of MacCorkle Lavender in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 21-C-1031
