Generally. There is a crucial difference between a representation and a warranty. Generally, in residential sales transactions, a seller representation is a statement about the present condition or legal status of the home. Most such representations are limited to the seller’s actual knowledge, such as the statement: “To the best of my knowledge, this home has no material structural defects.” Such a statement is only based upon the seller’s “best knowledge” or belief, and does not rise to the level of a “promise,” “warranty,” or “guarantee”1 that, in fact, there are no material structural defects in the home.
A warranty normally goes much farther than a representation, since it actually makes a statement of fact or law about the condition or status of the home. For example, a statement that “This property is free of all material structural defects” is the equivalent of a warranty that there are no such defects. The fact that certain magic words such as “promise,” “warranty,” or “guarantee” are not included in the statement is irrelevant to whether it rises to the level of a contractual warranty and may be relied upon by the buyer as such. Generally, saying something is so is the legal equivalent of guarantying it is so. [Click here to go to rest of article – You may need to then right click on “Run this plug-in” to open entire article.]
