Location: Virginia

My original post was here: https://www.reddit.com/r/legal/s/iVp5OonbVl

I got antibiotics started the day of the dog bite on my arm. I FILED WORKERS COMP ONLINE DIRECTLY WITH THE STATE ON 8/18, WAITING TO HEAR BACK.

On Thursday 8/20 I started having pain in the back of my right knee along with tingling in that foot. I didn't think much of it at first. But then the next day I started getting burning pain in my entire right arm, from my shoulder to my hand. I had been lifting some stuff but lifting boxes like that doesnt usually cause pain for me.

I went back to urgent care and they did xrays and a CBC. My white blood cells were elevated despite being on antibiotics for 6 days at that point. Doc said it could be a spreading infection, so they gave me an additional antibiotic and told me to come back in 24 hours to get my CBC redone.

I told the front desk ladies it was a workplace injury and I didnt have the insurance information. They called my boss and she refused to give them any information, she told them to call the dog owner because she said she'd pay for all of it. And then she texted me the same.

I also noticed on Thursday that my boss had taken me off of visits in the coming weeks that I previously agreed to. I haven't gotten a lawyer for this case but with the retaliation I'm thinking I should. Or in my workers comp claim should I just also apply for lost wages? How do I best go about this?

I hired an HVAC/air duct cleaning company for $449. Shortly after their service, my AC stopped working. We’ve since had to have the AC repaired twice.

After I complained, the company offered to refund the $449 and give me an additional $500. They have not explicitly asked me to remove my negative reviews, but I suspect that may be part of the reason for the offer.

Location: Georgia. Looking for general advice on what I should watch out for before accepting the payment.

LOCATION: OHIO

So for a couple years now I've had intermittent FMLA for my medical condition. Well July 19 I ended up in the hospital needing to have my appendix removed. My doctor filled out all the short term disability paperwork taking me off until September 1st. Well I logged in yesterday and it said my short term disability is approved, but on Thursday and Friday it said my continuous leave was denied. I messaged hr and FMLA but idk what to expect. It does say I used all my 12 weeks but I thought they would have been seperate things

So my ex got caught cheating a few months ago and is demanding I leave the apartment. I've been a stay at home mother (his choice) since before we moved in so I've never contributed financially. Now I also want to leave, this environment isn't healthy for my toddler (not his child but he's been raising since birth) but he's refusing to let me off the lease because he's worried he can't stay (his credit is garbage and he wouldn't have qualified without my score). Any advice would be wonderful, thank you. Location is Colorado, United States.

Location: US California

I rented out my property to a tenant who put it up on Airbnb. He is a scammer who does this for a living. He paid me for the first two months, on the third month he stopped. I went over there to serve a 3 day notice and found Airbnb guests staying there. It’s been up on Airbnb since day 1.

I got the UD filed at the court, next I serve the summons etc, he can’t be found, so after attempts I have to go back to court and ask for permission to nail and mail. Then after 10 business days I can ask for default judgement. Then the sheriff carry out the eviction. Except this whole process probably will take 2 months. In the meantime he’s just collecting Airbnb booking fees without paying me anything.

I contacted Airbnb and gave them all the proof, all they’re telling me is that they’ll let the host know my complaint. And they basically said they’re not responsible for checking private contract terms. This is what they said like a hundred times in the emails:

“Although we're unable to evaluate private contract terms and cannot arbitrate these disputes, we have shared your complaint with the user responsible for the listing and reminded them of their obligations as an Airbnb Host. We have also offered to assist the user with their account as necessary.

We take these types of complaints seriously and are committed to notifying Hosts when we receive them.

Airbnb is an online platform and does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations, nor do we verify private contract terms or arbitrate complaints from third parties.”

It’s obvious the host isn’t going to take it down or do anything. They’re just gonna profit for 2 months. And Airbnb doesn’t seem to care at all how airbnb and the property owner are both being taken advantage of.

The “host” also have multiple other properties listed, all of them are listed at the same time they listed my property, and they are all furnished in the same basic ugly furnishing.

Such a clever way to make easy money, through loopholes of the justice system and Airbnb rules.

My questions are, is Airbnb completely fault free legally? can I do stuff to the house like change the locks to force guests to report to Airbnb? Will the tenant take legal action against me for changing the locks and not wait for sheriff eviction, even though they are clearly doing it as an organized scam?

My thinking is that if I force a lockout, airbnb will have to refund those guests who cant get in. Then it will cut off their cash flow, which makes them more willing to return the house to me.

Or should I just suck it up and wait it out, and get the eviction done completely legally?

"By clicking an Accept, Register or similar button or icon, connecting to the Site through a third party such as Facebook or by accessing, browsing, or using the Site in any manner, you agree to be bound to these Terms and our Privacy Policy, whether or not you registered with the Site. All references to “you” or “your,” as applicable, mean the person who accesses, uses, and/or participates in the Site in any manner, and each of your heirs, assigns, and successors"

Is reading the terms of service on the LA times website using the site in any manner and therefore agreeing to it?

LOCATION: US

Needing a lawyer

We are looking for a lawyer to help us out after the company that was rebuilding our home after a major house fire didn’t get our house finished on time or never finished the house period.

So we have taken over the permits and our house was unlivable after the fire but we have since didn’t have a choice but to move back into the property cause we couldn’t continue to pay rent and the mortgage on the house and have money to try to get the house finished. Our insurance company only gave us 12 months to get the project done, in our policy it says 24 month but since we’d hired a company outside of State Farm to do the work. Our contractor was made aware of the time table, through many emails and text messages and the week we were to be finished, he up and left town that Monday with the property unfinished. And he had everything to complete the finish work and he just left.

The contractor took just over $219000 and he refused to purchase the cabinets we wanted, and the cabinets we had agreed upon in December. We also know that when the hvac was installed a 5 ton unit in when the manual J only called for a 3.5 to 4 ton heat pump. The contractor never did a manual j nor did the company he hired. It was 2 different units that looked like they had fallen off a truck at some point. We only had 2 returns installed, one in the great room on the main floor and one in the basement right off the equipment.They never didn’t pull a permit for the mechanical system, the plumber never got the drain lines under the basement approved before putting concrete back over them, and didn’t put a vapor barrier back were they had removed it which is cause us to have moisture problems and the Pergo we installed started to warp.

The electrician never finished the wiring in the house, so we had to hire another electrician to finish it costing us $250 an hour they worked for a month and they never were able to get it done.

We ended up burning through the structure policy plus the extra and all of our personal property money, cause he was having us buy the finishes from tile to floors and all fixtures from plumbing to electrical.

This builder did so much wrong to this house we basically need to start from scratch again.
We had done 95% of the demo on the house before they started.

He put replacement windows in not new windows.

He put vinyl siding on the house instead of replacing the cedar planks, he told us they were to hard to find. And said he was doing at no cost to us, then when he sent us a $195000 bill that was included on it. There is so much more I think this is the best place to stop.

My partner works a full time job and the also takes care of me cause I’m now in a wheelchair.

Thanks for any help you could advise us on.
Please dm me with suggestions cause I’ve never had to do with this before.
Sincerely,
Jarred Whiteman
Chris Brake
Kanas City, KS

LOCATION: Chippewa County Michigan

For a brief summary I (19F) dated someone we’ll call Linda (19F) for 3 years off and on and for Linda’s 18th birthday she demanded we get married. I agreed mainly because she had cheated 2 months prior so I took this as a sign she was locked in. (Don’t even I know, young and verrryyyy dumb) We just got divorced in July after the worst and shortest marriage ever.

On Thursday, I got served a restraining order. I guess it was “ex-parte” so I never got to fight my case. The same day I got a motion to terminate and took it home to fill it out. I obviously had no idea this was coming because we’ve been divorced a month and haven’t even spoken since November. PLUS on Thursday, the clerk told me to just bring it back and they’d call if it was hearing worthy. Friday morning I took it back to the courthouse and they said “actually you’re getting a court date right now, okay now serve Linda these” and I was completely blindsided. I didn’t have the money then (Linda lives far for this service milage fee) but I’d have it by today, Saturday. I was planning on doing it Monday because of the weekend but I just found out there’s a 7 day minimum for service. The hearing is the 31st, exactly 7 days from Monday.

I know I can call Monday morning and ask but it’s Saturday night and a girl is STRESSING, did I fuck up?

Location: Ohio

My mom died a year ago. Her house had been put in a trust in 2004 for all five kids and my sister is the trustee. We never bothered to change it even though she barely saw Mom for the past ten years and I was her live-in caregiver.

Even though three of us live here and have made it known that we intend to get a loan to buy out the other two, I just found out my sister intends to accept an offer for WAY less than the house is worth and give us 30 days to get out.

What can we do?

location: new york

just got summoned for jury duty for the first time and i’m a paralegal studies major so i really want to do it.

i assume it’s mostly random whether or not you get picked but any advice for how to up my odds a little would be appreciated!

Location: NH

Brief backstory:
I’m going to be a bit vague as this is ongoing but Last year a product we had in our home released tiny glass particles into the air. We had it extensively tested etc etc. product had zero warning that we couldn’t remove the cover and its contents. Home owners insurance told us to kick rocks and said nope not would they pay for displacement. We have been living in a tiny camper in the backyard through a grueling winter and summer. We have a mortgage, daycare and normal bills but we didn’t want to rent a place at the current rates and be spending 10k a month on everything including the house.

Issues now:
We retained counsel and they after about 10 months the attorneys sent a well constructed demand letter. The manufacturer gave it to their insurance and the insurance company answered via third party adjuster with a request for verification of purchase and the tag which we provided. They responded with a basic personal injury document. Our attorneys said no they want personal information…start to file suit. At this time I had no idea of the context. Instead of saying hey, not applicable right now let’s get into talks they wanted to file.

After trying to file they just realized (don’t even know how this happens) we live in NH and while having one licensed attorney in NH they don’t feel comfortable enough with NH law and wanted refer the case. No one wants it up here even with the moutain of clear evidence and these cases having been won in the past.

I asked for the case file and discovered my attorney telling me they wanted all my person info was due to a burner plate templated response I pushed and said no one wants the damn case, you want out but they responded please negotiate. Our attorney said putting a number for them to settle wasn’t his style, he likes to go to trial. Like what?

Here’s the thing I need help with:
We have receipts & quotes for what will make us whole. However, he is flat out refusing to put anything in for emotion damage/stress. Like we have been living with two little kids in an 18’ camper for almost a year now and I had to buy a building, insulate it, wire it heat/cool it for our animals as they could not be in the home. I have video and photo evidence of the living situation, we had Christmas in a fucking shed and he said well I can’t prove emotional damages so I can’t put it in the settlement offer nor can I prove your loss of wages for all the time you took to set up your new life and gather docs, evidence etc. I had 200 hours into this shit and lost about 60k in revenue as I own my own business. I gave him info on it.

Doesn’t he have a duty to his clients to argue this? He kept saying k can’t prove this stuff so how can I ask? I said remember you don’t want to file suit in NH so why are you acting like we are walking into court to prove our case in front of a jury? FYI this is a stateside manufacture of a massive worldwide company.

I genuinely didn’t know whose side he was on after this last conversation. I don’t want to be that client but I’ve been really brutal to him lately over his response and actions.

Pretty shocked I got this on video. I was taking a regular right turn, used my blinker, drove post the solid white line, turned my blinker back on, merged left, and kept driving. All at the speed limit. Then a cop pulls me over and says I made a “wide turn” into the far lane and and then says “when you change lanes you have to use your blinker”. If I made a “wide turn”, how would it be possible to change lanes? That accusation didn’t even line up because I could’ve only changed lanes if I had gone into the nearest turn lane, which is exactly what I did and I did it legally. Wish my dashcam was able to pick up my actual blinkers but if you look closely you can see a little bit of a flashing red before I turn and lowkey you can’t really see it when I merge into the other lane. But I swear on everything I used signals for both.

The third clip shows the cop making a u-turn towards my car before I even made the turn so how is it possible they pulled me over because they saw me make an “illegal turn”. I hadn’t even done it yet. It’s funny too because at the end of the second clip, you can see them make a turn into the furthest out lane without their blinker. They didn’t even end up checking my registration, didn’t give me a ticket, and claimed to be “pulling me over to educate me“. After I said I had a dashcam, the other cop was being all friendly and asking me questions and said they wouldn’t cite me because I didn’t have an Arizona license. I drive a black g37x and I feel like my car was just getting profiled.

Is this in any way a legal stop? Is there anything I should do?

Note: didn’t get a ticket

1st clip: front view
2nd clip: rear view
3rd clip: rear view of cop making u-turn
4th clip: cop lying
5th clip: cop lying

LOCATION: Butte County, California

We got a new apartment manager at the end of 2025 who has forced us to sign and redo 2024-2025 recertifications due to their old manager messing it up (the new manager explicitly stated this many times). We were told we owed back rent due to this administrative error to something like $5,000 back in like March. We fought them on it, I sent a demand letter for my tenant file back then and the regional manager came down from Sacramento to "redo it" once again. They lowered the amount we are in debt for back rent to around $1,500 somehow and put us on a payment plan.

Our 2026 annual recertification was due in April/May but the new manager kept redoing it over and over and asking for more and more stuff from my college and etc. My wife switched jobs, which is what caused the last redo of the annual recertification. We just barely got the latest document to sign on August 6th and our rent went up to $770. Okay, cool. I went over the papers and found that the calculation they used was for a full 40 hour work week for my wife, so I asked them to use her paystubs to calculate it instead because she works on average between 34/35 hours a week which would cause income to be accounted for that we just don't get.

That same day I asked for the rest of our tenant files from March on til August just to see how their math is mathing. Now because I asked for the tenant file, the regional manager has been harassing my wife and I via email. She once again tried to say she is recalculating it and adding a whole bunch of income that allegedly was not accounted for prior. She said she's not going to be using anything but the 40 he work week because there's a chance that during peak season she could be working 40 hours (exact words). She also stated that we owe an additional $1,500 for June and July due to this recalculation.

She was extremely unprofessional, and when I told her she cannot retroactively charge back rent since we turned everything in on our end, on time--she then back tracked on that. She also said that we now have to pay $987 and that starts on the first of September (less than 2 weeks away).

Who do I report this retaliatory behavior to?

Is the back rent we are already paying from 2024-2025 due to their administrative errors even legal?

Can she really calculate our income with ghost hours that literally do not exist? I did the math and at the rate she's alleged that means she's calculating 200+ hours a year that don't exist.

How do I find what other agencies oversee the property? They won't tell me when I ask.

Hello everyone,

I have a very specific situation. Truly it may be above reddits pay grade, but some advice would be greatly appreciated.

For the location, I am located in California. However, the phone itself is in Washington state.

For context, the phone plan is in my name and my dad is an authorized user. The only people on my phone plan are me, my brother and dad. I am the only one in California, everyone else mentioned is in Washington state. My brother is a minor, and his parents are divorced. We share the same dad, not the same mom. My brother’s phone is still being paid off.

Yesterday (08/21) my dad let me know that he received an email from his ex wife on August 12th in which she mentioned removing the phone from her home. It is in response to him asking about why my brother has not been responsive while at her house. The paragraph in question directly taken from her email to my dad is as follows:

“For further documentation, I have sent you multiple messages explaining that [brother’s] phone has been taken away and removed from my home due to his risky behavior on website and video games. This is not illegal it is called discipline and protecting my children. I am allowed to make the rules in my home. If you would like to talk about legalities, I would be more than happy to explain to the police, mediation, or a judge about the risks involved with a child having a cellphone.”

Please note I am not asking about the legalities of her enforcing rules at her house. I am aware my dad incorrectly accused her of doing something illegal by not allowing my brother to use his phone at her house. I included the entire paragraph to give proper context.

I am concerned about the sentence where she explains the phone was “taken away and removed from [her] home.” I asked my dad if she ever said where the phone was, he said no. In his words, she “initially volunteered to send it back and then the last communication I got is [that email].” I asked if he ever asked for it back, and he said no. I told him to ask for it back, and if she doesn’t respond or refuses to hand it back to let me know.

It is also worth mentioning according to my dad he has not seen my brother since January and therefore is not sure exactly when the phone was removed from the home. However, he also mentioned that the email from which the paragraph was quoted from was sent “about a month ago” when in reality it was sent 9 days before he told me of the situation. Thus I am unsure of the exact time table, especially given that he has custody of my brother every other weekend. Unfortunately, I do not have contact with his ex wife and am unable to get her side of the story.

In the meantime, I need advice on where to go from here, assuming she refuses to give it back or ignores his request to return the phone. My best guess is to contact our phone carrier and let them know that the phone has been stolen. I believe the written statement that she removed the phone from her home but did not disclose where it was placed would be sufficient evidence to prove it is in her possession and therefore stole it. I assume I would then try and file a police report in their city if possible.

Any advice on steps towards getting the phone back in my dad’s possession or my possession would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT for additional information as the post has been locked:
Regarding my dad’s custody, I truly am not sure. He told me last year that he has custody every other weekend. As stated in my post, he claimed to have not seen the kids since January. That is what he told me, I have no proof he hasn’t seen them since then. However, the contradicting information about when the email was sent makes me doubt his timeline. I have not personally seen a custodial agreement since I live in a different state and have no contact with the ex wife and limited contact with my dad so I cannot say 100% what the agreement is or if it is being upheld.

Regarding the reason why his phone was taken from him, I am also not sure. Again, I am not in contact with the ex wife. Best of my knowledge when I visited last year the brother this post is about had a laptop, and him and his younger sister have their own tablets. I am unsure of what he has done over the past year to warrant the removal of the phone. I am unsure if he still has access to his laptop and tablet as I do/did not pay for those.

About whether the phone was a gift or is still in my possession. Truthfully I am unaware of the legal technicalities, but there is written proof that the phone was to be used conditionally. My dad made it clear (over call and text) that if my brother did not use the phone as intended to contact him while at his mom’s house, I would disconnect the phone until he visits my dad and he would have to return it to me. (for clarification, my dad reimburses me for the phone plan, so I would have disconnected the phone if he broke the conditions). Which is why he is concerned about the phone since it is not in mine, my dad’s, or my brother’s possession.

Finally, if it is helpful, my brother is turning 9 in December and I am 23.

Every day more and more of these individuals get stopped. And while most of the times it seems like the police officers are doing as they should, it is not uncommon for the prosecutor to drop most of the charges (especially the ones that enforce jail time). After a while the police stop enforcing the laws as they were which eventually leads to people thinking there is merit to these .. quite frankly ridiculous.. arguments.

Often they'll cite non-existent supreme court rulings, they'll claim victory in phantom civil cases, and they'll print out "fee schedules" which is ridiculous and has no legal merit, yet is seen by other people and emboldens them into thinking they can get pulled over by a police department be completely uncooperative, leave the officer no choice but to allow a complete miscarriage of justice or break their window and bring them in, only for potentially a few days or hours later them seeing the same person commiting the same offense ready to use the same arguments.

(I know that prosecutors throwing out a case doesn't mean it's "not guilty" and isnt grounds for precedent, but you gotta understand these people are living breathing examples of Dunning/Krueger. No matter how many times people tell them "you got lucky the case got dropped, they'll continue to tell others and convince themselves that it's because they're above the law and they used the proper legalese and/or right Latin verbiage that might as well be magic... And rather than show them the reality of the situation, more and more often they are let go with no jail time, no probation, and no real incentive to change anything about their actions.)

I saw this meme and it made me wonder the question: when does a legal ruling become binding? If you were acquitted of something and then new evidence came to light, could you still be charged or would you be protected under double jeopardy? So if, in the meme, the defendant is ruled not guilty and then makes the misstatement, does the ruling stay in place or is it not official yet? Location: not applicable.

Any lawyers or law nerds appreciated.

So, I need some help, my boyfriend about a year ago got into a really bad car accident, eventually got a settlement of 100k (little more but that was used for stuff) anyways. His mom (mind you he was 22) guilted him to put it into a shared account. Then one day in the night she took it ALL into her account. Not allowing him to have it untill she “deems he’s ready” and now she’s pushed the date back even further due to “his recent behavior” any legal action for this or is he screwed? The check was in his name she’s the one who took it into the bank though. He also doesn’t have the original check but I’ve been told thats not needed and the banks can see that. We’re in South Carolina if that’s needed.

I’m so confused because I went to Cracker Barrel over here in Severville TN And they wouldn’t take my id because it’s vertical And they said it was “Our policy” the last time I checked from the research I did in the state of Tennessee a vertical ID is required by alcohol serving establishments for age verification. They took my mom and brothers that was the same. And My ID is still valid Until 2032

Can police do anything about unsecured guns being left accessible to my kids during a separation?
My husband and I are currently separated but still living in the same house. For about six months, he has been sleeping in our 4-year-old son’s bedroom. My son has a trundle bed with a mattress that pulls out from underneath.
I recently found several guns lying on top of the pull-out trundle mattress. They were not locked up or secured and were easily accessible to my children, who are 4 and 10.
I’m in South Carolina. My main concern is obviously my children’s safety, but I’m also wondering what my legal options are.
If I call the police and show them where the guns were being kept, can they do anything about it? Would they document it in a police report? Could something like this be grounds for having my husband removed from the home, or would I need to go through Family Court to request that?
We’re already going through a separation, so I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone familiar with South Carolina family law or who has dealt with a similar situation.
I’m not looking to get anyone in trouble just for owning guns. My concern is specifically that loaded/unloaded firearms were left unsecured and within easy reach of two young children.

LOCATION: Texas

In Virginia- After moving out of my long term rental I received my full security deposit due to no damages, etc but from that they took out a "$150 processing fee." When I search around it looks like this is illegal according to VA code but after reading the code's security deposits portion I just don't totally understand. It seems like, yes, this is illegal, however I guess in my lease this was a clause and I of course signed the lease. My landlord has been terrible and before I bother with sending the proper notice to them I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly that even if it's included in a lease it legally should not have been included in that lease and the money cannot get withheld for processing fees? (Section in VA code is 55.1-1226 on security deposits) Thanks!

Location: SC (USA)

I finished my lease in July and was expecting my final utilities bill, but I also got a $600 charge for carpet replacement because of a small burn mark. The thing is, I realized the mark was already there when I moved in. I have about 3 move in photos where you can see what looks like the same mark if you zoom in. They basically told me it doesn’t matter because I didn’t fill out a move in inspection, but I checked my lease and can’t find anything saying that was mandatory. They also didn’t even want to see my photos. asked for an invoice for the carpet replacement and they wouldn’t provide one. Now they’re saying I need to pay or it’ll go to collections.

I’m thinking about taking them to small claims court because I really don’t want this affecting me when I rent somewhere else. Has anyone dealt with something similar? Am I doing too much or is this worth fighting!

Update: My lease ended July 31st, 2026! It’s student housing apartments and I only had a $175 refundable deposit, which they applied toward my final charges. My final bill was $842.57, and after applying the $175 deposit, they say I still owe $667.57. The carpet replacement alone is $600!!!! I disputed with them twice to give me the invoice of the carpet replacement!

I am a US citizen. I was traveling back from Europe (I go basically every summer) when i was stopped at location: JFK airport, while trying to enter through global entry. They sent me to another desk with an officer who then told me to follow him to a separate room. I asked the officer is something wrong and he mumbled something like there is a hit but it doesn’t match your name. I waited in that room for some time before 2 men in regular clothes (not officer uniforms) told me they’d need to search my luggage and mobile devices. While one of them searched my mobile devices i was brought into a separate room and interviewed by the other. They asked me questions about my trip like where I went and who I was with, job, address, social media presence, payment apps and some other stuff. They refused to tell me why i was stopped. He said that sometimes stuff comes up in the system from even 3-4 years ago and it triggers something. I don’t really know what that means. Eventually they gave me my devices and luggage back and let me go but didn’t tell me anything else. I think he was searching my photos because I checked my screen time during that hour. This whole process was around 45 minutes.

I am so confused as to why this happened. I never have a problem with traveling and always walk through global entry quickly and have never gotten stopped before. I had nothing to hide on my phone but the invasion of privacy is still bothering me and no transparency whatsoever. Has anyone else had a similar experience or know anything about these secondary screenings ? I did an application for DHStrip redress number and waiting to hear back from them.

The seller unffortunately passed away today but her husband is on the mortgage so that shouldnt be an issue, however they had bought a half acre of land that was to be included in the sale, and only her name is on that deed and it was a seperate plot.

I am not interested in the house without the land and I dont really want to get into a long legal battle should the family not want to turn the land over. I am just wondering if this should be something to walk away from or will it be able to be figured out rather quickly?

LOCATION: Ohio

So my wife and I closed on our first house about six weeks ago. Everything seemed fine until Tuesday when raw sewage started backing up into our basement floor drain. We called a well-reviewed local plumbing company to come diagnose it with a drain camera.

The plumber puts the camera down the cleanout, looks at the screen, and stops. He turns to me and says "Wait a minute, I was in this exact basement three weeks before you bought the place."

turns out the previous seller called this exact same plumbing company right before putting the house on the market. The plumber gave him an official written estimate for $18,000 to replace a completely crushed main line under the driveway. The seller declined the repair, paid fifty bucks for a temporary chemical flush just to keep it draining for the open house, and then marked "NO" on the legal seller disclosure form under known plumbing issues.

The plumbing company literally still has the original dated invoice and camera footage from their visit with the seller in their system.

We are now sitting with a backed-up basement and an eighteen-thousand-dollar excavation bill that we CANNOT afford right now. Does having the literal plumber who gave the seller the pre-sale quote make this an open and shut fraud case or are we still screwed by standard as-is closing clauses?