When buying an 80 year old home, does the purchaser have a responsibility to check the basement for water damage?

When buying an 80-year old home, a purchaser must act with more diligence than the purchasers did in this case. As Schwartz J. observed in O’Neill v. Pierce, supra, anyone buying a house that old in the City of Winnipeg, has to assume that there is a very distinct possibility that the house might some problem with water seepage. The husband’s experience in the home renovation business made him well aware of the very real problems that exist with older homes, and his assumption of the responsibility to check the basement of the house carefully for water damage was only part of that responsibility. The purchasers should have asked the defendant directly. They made no inquiry whatsoever. If they had made inquiry, the defendant would have been obligated to reveal the water damage to the panels of which he was aware.