Now that we've bought the house ($500,000, high COL Canadian city) but don't close until next month, our real estate agent called to say that when the house owner "did a little research" they've "now" discovered that the company is no longer in business.
I did a little research and the waterproofer is now in business under a very similar name with just the difference of "Drainage" and "Waterproofing". When I looked up his company on BBB, his company had received an 'F'.
We clearly were stupid and did not do due diligence. Face punch. Face punch. Face punch. We were completely clueless about houses and shouldn't have been idiots. We are in a city where they have a short time between the open house and when they accept offers. We went to the open house Sunday, saw it with our agent Monday night, and had a house inspection Tuesday and they started accepting offers the same night, 1 1/2 hours later. It's a high, high pressure situation and people lose out on houses they want all the time.
So...does anyone know if this is grounds to get out of the deal?
[Irrelevant I guess, but kind of disturbing: When I looked up the company owner's name, I learned he has a rep. for a bad temper. For eg, as an asst kids hockey coach, he's threatened an official at a game ("I'll see you in the parking lot") and received 15 major penalties for similar things.]