The buyers of a house in Winnipeg have filed a lawsuit claiming the house sellers deliberately hid information about its cracked foundation, and that a home inspector did not inform them about the problem after doing an inspection.
After taking possession of the house in the summer of 2023, the buyers discovered serious cracks in the foundation, according to a statement of claim filed May 1 in Court of King’s Bench at Winnipeg.
The buyers claim the prior owners “had deliberately and strategically placed storage containers and a recycling container to hide three severe cracks at the foundation adjacent to the garage,” the lawsuit says.
The homebuyers claim the intent was “to hide the latent defects from view,” the court document says.
It alleges the prior owners had issued a property disclosure statement falsely stating they were unaware of the cracks in the foundation of the Linden Woods home, which has an assessed value of more than $500,000.
Once the buyers had possession of the home, they got a structural engineer to inspect the three cracks in the foundation.
Based on the engineer’s report, the lawsuit claims a foundation repair contractor estimated the cost to fix the foundation would be between $40,000 and $50,000.
The buyers had made a conditional offer to purchase the house and before finalizing the offer, they had a home inspection done by an inspector registered and certified by the Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors, a self-regulated professional body of home inspectors.
The plaintiffs are seeking damages from the home inspector for professional negligence, alleging he failed to exercise the diligence expected of a registered home inspector.
After discovering the alleged defects with the house, the lawsuit says the plaintiffs contacted their real estate company and the home inspector.
The home inspector later told the plaintiffs “that he was blameless,” as the cracks “were hidden from view by the storage containers and recycling bin strategically placed in front of the defects,” the lawsuit says.
The court document claims the storage and recycling containers in the basement could easily have been moved by the home inspector, but he did not.
As a result, the inspector failed to note the cracks in the foundation and warn the plaintiffs about them, the claim says.
It says that if the plaintiffs had been advised of the cracks, they wouldn’t have finalized their offer to purchase the house.
No mandatory licensing for inspectors in Manitoba
A business associate of the home inspector is also named as a defendant, along with two companies the inspector worked with.
Contacted by CBC News, the home inspector declined to comment on the case, as did the plaintiff’s lawyer.
The buyers are seeking an unspecified amount of damages from the two people who previously owned the house.
The house sellers named as defendants could not be reached for comment.
The allegations have not been tested in court and the defendants have not filed statements of defence.
The Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors is a voluntary licensing program for home inspectors across Canada, with 16 members in Manitoba as of May 2025.
Manitoba does not have a mandatory provincial licensing program, but British Columbia and Alberta do.
Anne Stacey, CAHPI’s executive director, said the association would support licensing and regulation of the profession by all provinces.
There have been no complaints against Manitoba members since 2022, Stacey said.
B.C. became the first province in Canada to start regulating home inspectors in 2009.
Complaints by consumers about inspectors in B.C. are rare, according to numbers from Consumer Protection BC, which operates the home inspector regulation program.
With 458 licensed home inspectors in B.C., there have been two consumer complaint files opened so far in 2025, says Consumer Protection BC public relations director Louise Hartland.
The regulator itself sometimes opens complaint files for infractions such as an inspector failing to carry insurance, or not including proper clauses in their contracts.
B.C. had 20 files opened by the regulator in 2023, and seven files in 2024.
