Had similar, and extremely expensive foundation issues (water intrusion eating away at the support, broken pipe and disposal of construction debris under the house) to resolve after purchase that seller had to have known about. The burden on me to both sue the home inspection for being derelict in their duties and the seller far exceeded my ability to pay for such legal representation with the uncertainty of winning.
I can recommend you talk to a whiz of inspections who is often called in these cases and can assist in any legal path. Jim Delgado (who I should have had as a home inspector bc he's so thorough he drives realtors insane) is the best in town. Used to work for DCRA and knows all their tricks. Delgado and Associates, jimdelgado50@gmail.com Delgadoinspections.com. He was a little crotchety but a solidly amazing advocate.
Legal fees I have to admit I kind of memory holed at this point. The advice I got suggested I should probably sue (the seller had been sued a couple times before but I couldn't find much in the way of results) but the need to do the work ASAP meant I might end up paying twice. I was extremely wary of lawyers and had no faith they'd do anything but screw me over more than I had been.
Total costs were probably in the range 40K range.
I can also recommend a structural residential engineer if you need a third party eye to anything a vendor may propose/get your own design. RESolutions https://www.res-dc.com/
Surefinewhatever1111 t1_jef8ewa wrote
Had similar, and extremely expensive foundation issues (water intrusion eating away at the support, broken pipe and disposal of construction debris under the house) to resolve after purchase that seller had to have known about. The burden on me to both sue the home inspection for being derelict in their duties and the seller far exceeded my ability to pay for such legal representation with the uncertainty of winning.
I can recommend you talk to a whiz of inspections who is often called in these cases and can assist in any legal path. Jim Delgado (who I should have had as a home inspector bc he's so thorough he drives realtors insane) is the best in town. Used to work for DCRA and knows all their tricks. Delgado and Associates, jimdelgado50@gmail.com Delgadoinspections.com. He was a little crotchety but a solidly amazing advocate.