Winston-Salem, NC asked in Contracts and Real Estate Law for North Carolina

Q: Do I have any recourse against a developer that sold me a building lot with poor soil conditions?

I purchased a building lot in a known subdivision from the developer of the subdivision in WinstonSalem(NC).After the contractor dug the footing ,Footing city inspector asked for a soil test.We hired a soil test engineer.We discovered the soil was not suitable to support the foundation.He dug to additional 10 feet below the footer and didn’t find good soil to build.The remedy is helical piles to be utilized which will add additional $30,000 to $40000 to the cost of our house. We assumed that purchasing the building lot would mean that the lot would be suitable for building a house.After reviewing the signed contract,there is nothing mentioned about the soil condition.

I feel the seller knew there were soil problems. this fact should have been more prominently disclosed before we purchased the lot.Do I have any recourse against the seller?

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