Did you use a real estate agent (that means NOT a Villages salesperson)? A nice summary of the seller's obligation:
Sellers Real Property Disclosure
Every Seller is obligated to disclose to a potential Buyer all known facts of a property being sold that may materially and/or adversely affect the value of the property that may not be readily observable. The Sellers Real Property Disclosure form will assist the Seller in complying with Florida disclosure requirements and will assist the Buyer in evaluating the property being purchased. Here is where the Seller tells the history of his home's condition, repairs made, and items still needing attention. Buyers will look to this disclosure to find information about current problems with the home, or problems that have arisen in the past and been corrected, especially if they were of a major nature i.e., roof replacement from hurricane damage.
Two important points... The seller has to be aware to be required to disclose and it cannot be something that should be obvious to the buyer. The specific defect you have found, was it an item that seems it should have been disclosed by the language you read in your disclosure form, assuming you received one? As to your question, what can you do. First contact your agent who will then review with you the ethics and laws regarding disclosure. She would then hopefully contact the seller's agent to inform him of the defect in the disclosure form. You may wish to indicate your position as to what remedy would make you content. If you fail to get satisfaction you need to decide if you care to litigate. Also is this an item a home inspection should have found? You may wish to contact the company that did your inspection and ask whether they checked the whatever is wrong. I am sure their inspection has a "we are not responsible if we miss something so don't depend on this inspection you paid for to actually be accurate" clause, but you can mention you will be happy to post the result of your experience on TOTV. Good luck. Please come back and let us know how it all works out.
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