Last year I was selling a condo for a Client who had lived in it for over 30 years. Knowing the rule about "disclose, disclose, disclose," I picked his brain to try to find out everything he could remember about living there for 30 years, and I was successful at helping him remember a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, he didn't remember the "little leak" in the bathroom of the unit above his. When the buyers went to remove the popcorn ceiling, they found a little bit of moisture damage in that area. Since they were removing the popcorn for all 1,500 square feet, they just decided to see if my Client would pay for the whole thing since there was a little bit of moisture damage. My Client declined and, sure enough, everyone winds up in a court of law. I'm thinking that disclosure laws should change, though, to, perhaps, something like the following for this case:

There was a little leak in the bathroom of the unit above mine. The water stain was about 3 inches in diameter. They fixed the leak. We painted the ceiling. That was in 1989. There have been no problems since. On the day after you close escrow, it will leak again, mark my words and be forewarned. If you're going to renovate anything in this unit, add 50% to your renovation budget to account for me being 87 and, perhaps, not remembering everything for the past 30 years. Thank you for buying my condo.