Selling your home AS-IS in LA – what does it ACTUALLY mean?
Homes in Louisiana are sold “as is with a waiver of warranty and redhibition rights”
“I’m selling the house AS IS! I am not making ANY repairs!” is usually what we hear sellers jumping in quick to say during a listing presentation. This statement is usually in response to hearing somewhere that homes are sold as is in Louisiana. And yes, this statement holds some truth, but it’s missing a part:
Homes are sold as is – AFTER THE ACT OF SALE.
When listing your home a disclosure document is required for sellers to sign stating just that. This statement does NOT mean that a potential buyer will not ask the seller to make repairs in lieu of deficiencies found through their due diligence period.
What DOES mean, is that after the act of sale, you are not warranting anything in the home. The buyer cannot come back and ask you to make repairs after the act of sale.
Now, if you hide some sort of defect or the fact that it has flooded etc. you could be responsible if not disclosed properly. But that’s a whole other blog for another day. Just remember: Always disclose! =)
During the contract process, the buyer will do inspections, if they choose to, and they can ask the seller to either make repairs or ask for an allowance for deficiencies. Now, a seller can absolutely say no to all repair requests. If a seller says no, then the buyer will have the opportunity to move forward to the act of sale or cancel the contract. Depending on what the repair request is, it may interest the seller to make some accommodations to prevent the buyer from canceling the sale.
Each contract and inspection response request is a different unique situation so it is hard to predict outcomes. Always consult with your REALTOR for advice on how to handle inspection responses.
Scenario: We had a first-time home buyer who had been looking at homes for about 2 months. We came across a home that wasn’t in her normal search parameters, but we went to see it anyway and the buyer loved it. The home had been on the market for over 30 days, not necessarily a long time, but it wasn’t a fresh new listing either. Our client wrote an offer, and after some negotiations we came to an agreement. The agent relayed to us that the seller was adamant about not making any repairs. We understood but our client still had every right to do inspections and ask for repairs.
Inspections went well overall, but there were some minor things the buyer was concerned about because this was her first home. We submitted an inspection response asking for a few things to be repaired. The listing agent’s response was that the seller would not make any repairs. He kept saying he was selling the property “as-is.” Ultimately, this rubbed our buyer the wrong way, so she decided to cancel the contract. If the seller had been accommodating and agreed to complete some of the repairs, we are confident our buyer would have moved forward. So what could have cost the seller $500-1000 in repairs, ultimately cost him the contract. We are not sure how long it stayed on the market, but our buyer ended up finding another home she loved even more.
Selling a home is stressful and ideally no one wants to make repairs for things they have most likely been living with for a while. Sometimes buyers ask for small things, but it is just part of the process. But in some situations it is best to spend the couple hundred dollars making a repair than risk losing a contract and now having to disclose deficiencies found in the inspection report.
So just a reminder – all in all, YES in Louisiana, you are selling a home AS IS – but after the act of sale.
If you would like to see a copy of As Is Disclosure or Waiver of Warranty and Redhibition Rights document, see here.
For any questions or help navigating the sale of your property, reach out to us at info@brunoswift.com.
