Suit: Broker, Agent, Seller Unloaded Home Onto 1st Time Buyer w/o Disclosing Presence Of Contaminated Federal 'Superfund' Site Less Than 100 Feet Away

In Gainsville, Florida, The Gainsville Sun reports:

• In 2004, Carla Melgarejo bought her first property, an 1,100-square-foot home at 444 NW 30th Ave. advertised as a "GREAT INVESTMENT" for a first-time buyer. For five years, her attorneys say, she and her daughter lived there without knowing that less than 100 feet to the east was the northwestern boundary of a federal Superfund site, a designation reserved for some of the most contaminated spots in the country.
• On Tuesday, Melgarejo filed a lawsuit against Bosshardt Realty Services, the real estate agent who worked on the sale and the couple who sold the property, alleging they did not disclose any information about the property's proximity to the Cabot-Koppers Superfund site.(1)

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• In comments at local meetings in recent years, residents have made accusations of "unscrupulous" real estate agents selling properties in the Stephen Foster neighborhood without disclosing the proximity to the Superfund site, which they say has crippled property values. But Springfield said she thought Melgarejo's suit was the first of its kind to be filed.

For more, see Homebuyer near Koppers sues real estate agency, ex-homeowners.

(1) In addition to Bosshardt Realty, one of its agents, David Ferro, and the previous owners of the property, Robert and Robin Evans, were named in the suit, the story states.