Home buying horror story: $1 Million Home Infested With Mice



When Carrie Forsythe, a Canadian woman and resident of Winnipeg, purchased a home for $1 million last May, the last thing she expected to find was a mice infestation. But that’s what she discovered in September when she went in to start renovations on the house.

The “dream home” is part of a 5,000 square foot lot, and is a charming sight to view. But when Forsythe took possession of it in September, it quickly turned from dream to disaster. When a contractor went in to begin pulling out cabinets and parts of drywall for the renovations, he discovered a nasty surprise: a complete infestation of mice.

“All you see is just feces and urine,” Forsythe said in an interview with CNC News, “just puddles and piles.”

And when the extermination company came to look at the infestation, they said she’d have to have a special crew come out and strip everything. A second pest control expert was called in to have a look at the damage.

“Wow. I’ve never seen that much,” he said. “And the key thing here is that you’re seeing a lot of feces below the insulation, which means that they’ve been tunneling for some time.

“Oh my God. Yeah, this is years, years in the making.”

Repairs are already costing Forsythe tens of thousands of dollars. She says she believes that the previous owners should be held responsible.

“Even if you didn’t know it was there, you still have a responsibility to have not sold that house,” she said. Though she didn’t have a formal home inspection, the previous owner did fill out a voluntary disclosure form stating that, to his knowledge, there was no rodent infestation in the house. When contacted by CBC News, he said he was shocked to find out and wouldn’t have sold the house in that condition if he had known.

Home inspections don’t come cheap, but if you’re in the market for a house and thinking of buying, it’s a good idea to have one. Yet only about 77% of home buyers have professional inspections done before closing on houses.
Forsythe now plans to sue the previous owners for damages.

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