The dream house almost turned into a nightmare..

Hello,
We thought we had found our dream house.
After the first viewing, it was clear to us that we wanted to have the house.
You could move in immediately and many things had been newly done.

Before signing a preliminary purchase contract, we wanted to send an expert to the house; this happened last Friday.
After the inspection, the shock: the basement was apparently not just damp but wet, and it had already spread to the ground floor... in the living room he found many wet and damp spots with his measuring device. In 5 beams in the roof, there were worms...
Then he noticed that wallpapering had apparently been done recently and the house was very, very clean.
Heaters were on in every room and windows were open; the expert found this very strange, probably they know about the severe moisture.
He advised us against buying the house for the purchase price of €249,000... he would calculate everything further if needed.
The real estate agent wanted to get in touch tomorrow to clarify everything further.

What do you think, how should we react? Should we tell everything we know, including the wet basement etc.?
Would you buy such a house?
I can imagine that she will not respond to this because she was already stressed during the inspection, asking if it would take much longer, etc...
If we tell her this, does she then have to tell every other potential buyer as well or is she allowed/capable to hide it?

As soon as she knows about it, she must also tell others. Otherwise, it would be fraudulent deception. As you describe it, I assume the agents or at least the owners know about it. -> is something still being concealed? I would not buy the house. Only if the causes are absolutely known and you can calculate the cost of the repair. But even then, nasty surprises can still occur...

Well, you can still buy it, but the price will have to be significantly adjusted. Then let's see how the real estate agent reacts to the statement. Either she will just brush it off or you are still in the game, then you can have the renovation costs estimated and apply another 10-20k€ discount for unforeseen expenses and negotiation margin. But since they already tried to trick you, you need to decide whether the process should continue at all. Next, the construction documents, land register, etc. would also have to be inspected and professionally evaluated. You don't want the next problem to be hidden there.

What do you want? Buy cheap? Then bargain now. Not buy at all? (That’s what I would do) Then just cancel now and today. No more interest due to severe moisture damage. Period. No comments, no excuses. Simply: No, don’t want anymore. Karsten

A little bit of moisture doesn't always have to be a knockout criterion. You could saw through the house and have it dried out. My aunt, I think, just paid around 15 thousand for that. However, the basement will always remain wet, which doesn't necessarily have to be a disadvantage. The same goes for the worms in the roof. You can make a counteroffer where the costs for removing the serious defects are immediately deducted. Ideally, already with a craftsman's cost estimate.

That's outrageous! Bet the real estate agent will claim she knows nothing? And the sellers wanted to pass off a wet house as dry to you, that's called fraudulent misrepresentation.....

Re-taping and cleaning everything afterwards is simply another form of fraud!

You were wise enough to get an expert and were lucky to find one who knows his stuff!

But for me, this case breaks down into 2 things:

1) Definitely do not buy, you were about to be ripped off, the seller knew exactly that his house is wet, he could have simply told you and you could have factored in the risk, but no, he wanted to see if a fool would buy it. Do not buy.

2) Please do the next poor buyer a favor and tell the agent and seller in writing that you are not buying the house due to moisture defects that were concealed from you.

The next "fool" who buys it may be existentially dependent on such evidence....