No one is liable.
The property is sold as is with no representations.

how could an executor who never lived in the house have any knowledge?

"how could an executor who never lived in the house have any knowledge?"

I can think of a handful of reasons in the particular case I am thinking of. An executor/family member would obviously have knowledge in most cases I would assume.

So a home inspection then is the buyers safety net in this situation? So if the roof is shot, or something else major, can a perspective buyer ask the estate for retribution / repair as in the case of a standard transaction?

Or better stated. Can the estate be sued for major defect after purchase?

What if defect have been masked to make quick sale... your telling me nobody is responsible in such a situation and an unknowing home buyer is SOL?

Oh for Heaven's sake, why do posters ask for legal advice on this forum? Grandmum, get a lawyer.

Its a general question, thanks for your valuable post kaleberg........

"So a home inspection then is the buyers safety net in this situation? So if the roof is shot, or something else major, can a perspective buyer ask the estate for retribution / repair as in the case of a standard transaction?

Or better stated. Can the estate be sued for major defect after purchase?"

Suing an estate or anything/anyone else is most certainly a legal matter.

You can file a law suit against anybody for any reason, whether the court will throw it out is up to the court. If it goes on, then you have to prove your case. Short of a letter or email (legally obtained) that spells out what is going on, it will be very difficult to prove who knew what and who did what.

This is why getting a good home inspector helps. But they make mistakes and miss stuff. The contract for their services usually contain verbiage that gets them out of being liable for anything they miss. So its hard to sue them.

It really is buyer beware. I have learned a whole lot about what to look for with each of my house purchases.

"An executor/family member would obviously have knowledge in most cases I would assume. "

Then that is a very wrong assumption on your part...

"An executor/family member would obviously have knowledge in most cases I would assume. "

I agree. Somebody's nephew who never lived in the house, for instance, would not know everything about the house.

Not to mention, I would never agree to be anyone's executor if it held such a liability.

I guess you could sue the estate but usually the house is the most valuable thing in the estate -- what do you do if there is nothing there or it has already been dispersed to family members?

We're buying a home from a guardian. He knows nothing about the house and stated so in the disclosures. He is selling the house for two elderly mentally challenged individuals. He knows nothing and they are unable to provide any information. The home is basically "as is." We have relied on our inspector and got a variety of additional inspections done in areas we were concerned about.

I would never think to waste my time suing the guardian for not disclosing something. Nor would I expect a family member to know anything. Heck, if I had to sell my sister's home I wouldn't have a clue if anything is wrong with it--we don't generally discuss our house problems.

"What if defect have been masked to make quick sale... your telling me nobody is responsible in such a situation and an unknowing home buyer is SOL?"

As a matter of fact, yes.
Not everything in life comes with a warranty.

If you can show active attempts to hide defects you MIGHT have a case. It will be VERY hard to prove the intent was to deceive.

If you are so scared of purchasing a property under these condition (the worries everyone had for the past few hundred years) then find another house.

I purchase many of these 'old folks' homes from estates.
I inspect them as a PE, but have still missed problems a couple times.
I have never even considered trying to go after the estate.

I sold four houses as an executor of my mother's estate. I couldn't possibly disclose facts I had no knowledge of. One of the houses I never even saw in person! The only things I could disclose were things that came up AFTER I took legal control of the properties. For example, one of the homes had sprinkler system problems that came to light when I had the handy man turn on the system while the house was on the market. I then made a correction to the disclosure form. But had I not had the sprinklers turned on, I never would have known. The home inspector would have probably discovered it though, which would have given the buyer reason to renegotiate.

But going back after the sale to sue them? You'd have to prove that the executor had knowledge of the defect and failed to disclose it. Many sellers cover up defects and fail to disclose them -- you'll find examples all over this forum. Has nothing to do with the home being estate owned or not, and ultimately it's exactly the same -- you'd have to prove they knew and didn't disclose.

As a buyer your best option is to hire a very competent home inspector, who will most likely turn up any major defects. And yes, you can negotiate repairs for any problems that come up in the inspection, just like any other real estate transaction.

The answer will depend on Indiana law. I'm not an Indiana lawyer, so take this for what it's worth (which is the same as its price--zero)

If Indiana law says no disclosure even of known defects is required in an estate sale then there would not be a basis for suing the estate for failing to make a disclosure, since their is no duty to disclose so no breach of that duty for failure to do so.

If Indiana law isn't quite so generous, it is possible that a person selling who does know of a defect (because they lived there or helped keep up the house) then they may be required to disclose it.

If there is a basis for suit, then the estate could be sued and the estate would be reduced by the amount of judgment. Depending on state law, once the estate is distributed, it's likely to be very hard to go after the proceeds from the beneficiaries, however, if not impossible.