A Buyer’s Failure to Follow an Expert’s Recommendations and Warnings Before the Sale Is Fatal to His Claim for Latent Defects

This post, published on Éditions Yvon Blais’ blog on latent defects on May 10, 2017 (FR), discusses the judgment in Desmeules v. 1845-0460 Québec inc. (Full Text | Fiche Quantum) in which the court reminds us that a buyer who fails to follow his expert’s recommendations made before the sale related to the signs or problems detected by said expert during his inspection is fatal to the buyer’s recourse for latent defects.

While the standard for the buyer’s prudence and diligence is not increased by his decision to retain the services of a pre-purchase inspector, a buyer who fails to follow his expert’s recommendations and warnings in relation to warning signs of a latent defect will not be considered to have acted prudently and diligently in the event he discovers defects relating to said warning signs raised by his expert during his pre-purchase inspection.

A buyer’s failure to follow his pre-purchase inspector’s recommendations will be, in principle, fatal to a potential recourse for latent defects if it appears that the recommended verifications/inspections before the sale could have led to the discovery of the defects in question or would have allowed the buyer to discover the defects in question.

Therefore, this post emphasizes that a buyer who has retained the services of an expert before the sale and who has received specific recommendations related to issues raised by his expert must follow said recommendations.

Of course, a general or abstract warning to carry out verifications does not constitute a sign of a defect if the inspector does not detect signs of any particular issues during his pre-purchase inspection, as discussed in a previous post, which deals with the Court of Appeal’s judgment in Leroux v. Gravano (Full Text | Fiche Quantum).