[Wisconsin] - Real Estate - Seller is suing me. legaladvice

Hello!

So this is a fun story. Where to begin... I purchased a home in June. This house needed help. The carpets were stained black from never being cleaned, there was dust on every surface (including walls), and was generally not taken care of. The house was built in 2005 so it isn't too old.

The seller seems to have early signs of dementia, which was indicated by general lack of knowing where they were (especially during closing).

They have filed a small claims lawsuit against me. Two reasons are included. "Threw away the food in my refrigerator without notifying me" and "Told them about the water heater pilot light." Mind you, this was after closing. I actually let him come back the day after closing to get anything left and did not take a single item.

So the water heater had an issue after the closing date, the seller never mentioned it on the condition report and conveniently forgot about it until the day after closing. The pilot light goes out every few hours and has to be re-lit. We called a plumber, who just so happens to have been to this house FOUR times in the past six months specifically for the water heater and they suggested he replace it each time.

I had it replaced and paid the entire thing up front. The seller and his ex (who was on the title) each agreed to pay for a quarter of the new one outside of any legal terms. They did so. Now the lawsuit is to get that money back.

On top of all this, he was harassing us before he filed. He would drive around the neighborhood which he no longer had reason to be in (he had no friends there). He was actually working on one of his cars just to be hanging out in the neighborhood. He also made a demand by dropping me a letter stating "This is an invoice for $25 for my food." We had police serve him with a stalking warning and have an open case about that.

Do I have a case for a counterclaim for the rest of the cost of the water heater or should I go the dismissal route?

Thanks!

Submitted August 14, 2017 at 05:04PM by cipecon http://ift.tt/2wIIOVu legaladvice