I bought a house from house flippers who renovate a property and sell it quickly. It looked nice and inspectors found nothing serious.

20 years later, the toilet fell through the floor. 5 years after that the shower is a leaky disaster. They did not install tiles on backer board anywhere in the house. They installed the showerpan wrong (without bedding and against the tiles instead of under the tiles). I spent thousands and have been quoted $9k more to fix the shower.

Fuck me. I don’t suppose I have any protection here. Insurance is for discrete events like storms, not incompetence of past renovators. The home inspectors would not have been able to see under the tiles, but every tile was installed incorrectly. The home inspectors I hired before buying should have seen that the showerpan was improperly installed, but I doubt they guarantee anything beyond 5 years anyway. This kind of damage does not manifest until well after a decade.

I guess I have to take this on the chin. Is there a chance that they violated building codes, and could be directly sued for damages on that basis? Since they were technically working on their own home and not as licensed pros, I wonder if that would vindicate them.

I don’t suppose I could even do anything to prevent the house flippers from harming others, or if they can still be found.