Amsterdam Court: New homeowners on the hook for €200,000 to repair quay wall damage

The buyers of a home in the Amsterdam city center cannot recover the costs of repairing the quay wall near their garden from the previous owner. The buyers waived the requirement for a building inspection when buying the home for 2.15 million euros in April 2023 and, therefore, accepted the property in the condition it was, the court ruled, AT5 first reported after the verdict was published on Friday.

The previous owners, a father and daughter, listed the home for sale at the end of June 2022. The new buyers bought it for 2.15 million euros the following April. They viewed the house and made an offer, but approval of their bid was not subject to a building inspection as the potential buyers waived the condition.

On May 5, 2023, the new owners moved into the home. Five days later they received a copy of a letter from the neighbor which was sent to the previous owners. The letter, dated at the end of February 2023, included the sentence “as you may have noticed, my quay wall is in very poor condition.”

In September, the new residents asked divers to look at their own quay wall. The divers found that three of the six connecting beams had broken loose, probably due to a collision. “This has made the quay wall very unstable and there is a real chance of collapse,” the company that deployed the divers stated in their quote for emergency measures, costing 25,000 euros. According to the company, permanent repair would cost around 150,000 euros.

The new owners feel that the previous owners knew about the state of the quay wall and should be liable for the repairs. They asked the court to dissolve a portion of the purchase agreement, saying it was “made under the influence of error and is therefore voidable,” and to reduce the purchase price by 200,000 euros.

The previous homeowners instead pushed for the claim to be dismissed. The buyers agreed to take over the property as-is, and made the decision against mandating a professional inspection of the property. Further, they also said they were unaware of any problems with quay wall, and thus had no ability to notify the new homeowners of the issue.

The court agreed, saying that they also did not have an obligation to notify the plaintiffs about the letter. It only states "that his quay wall is in very poor condition," the court noted. It makes no mention of the wall at the house in question.

In ruling against the new owners, the court agreed that there was indeed a “defect in the quay wall,” but the buyers waived the condition precedent for a building inspection. According to the court, the house was delivered in the condition that the buyers accepted.

The buyers are responsible for repairing the quay wall themselves, the court said. They also have to cover the legal costs of the previous owners, amounting to around 4,300 euros.