Liability for hidden defects in the house

Questioner

Hello, My question is about a hidden defect in our house. We bought our house 3 years ago without having a structural survey done unfortunately. We have a kind of leak in the roof. We are in the process of having it fixed, which costs a lot of money. Now we found an invoice this week that shows that the previous owner had already tried to have this problem fixed. So they didn't tell us. Can we still hold the previous owner liable? Thank you in advance.

Lawyer

Yes, you can still hold the seller liable for concealed defects. However, you must warn the seller as soon as possible after discovering the defect and give written notice of default, with a reasonable period within which the problem must be resolved.