Discovered portion of home purchased 1 year ago was built on an old deck instead of proper support - how to handle? [TN]

I purchased an investment property last summer to house hack. I have lived in one unit, and the other two have been used as rentals. When I toured the property, my agent and I noticed a "soft spot" in the floor of a room. We discussed and figured if something was terribly wrong, it would show up on the inspection report. This is a Frankenstein home where addition after addition was added on (likely by the original owner), and much of the building isn't really "conventional" from a builder or inspector's standards.

So I go under contract and have the inspection, and the inspector simply notes "soft spot in flooring of room x". Regarding the crawl space under this area, the inspector states he did not inspect it because he could not fully access the space due to duct work and plumbing obstructions. When I asked my agent about her recommendations for the entire property after inspection, this wasn't in her list of items, so it fell off my radar. Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, I over-relied on my agent here and did not investigate any further. Lesson learned for the next purchase.

Fast forward to today - the floor has sagged more, and some of the doors in this room are becoming hard to close, etc. I call out a foundation company, and long story short is that they find the entire back part of this home (maybe 14' x 40') was built on top of what appears to be an old deck. So the support under the home is nowhere near up to code - think 2x6 supports spaced at 20"-24" - not good.

I have gotten a couple quotes to address the issues, and foundation repairs are not cheap obviously. I am just wondering what my best path forward is for paying for the issues. One of the companies who gave me a quote suggested this may be something to discuss with my homeowner's insurance company to file a claim, but I am not sure I understand on what grounds an insurance claim would cover a pre-existing issue such as this?

I will be able to cover the repairs out-of-pocket and plan to do so in the very near-term, but I am curious what, if any, avenues for recourse I have - whether an insurance claim or otherwise? Again, a very expensive lesson learned for not pressing this issue further during my inspection period.

submitted by /u/BMM_2014
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/xr64tu/discovered_portion_of_home_purchased_1_year_ago/