Hi "Woof." I am an agent in South Dakota.

In response to your specific question about whether you can take action to stop or correct this private seller's claims, the short answer is pretty much "No." Here's some reasons why...

While South Dakota has enacted extensive consumer protection laws for home buyers, most of it is affected through involvement of a seller's real estate agent. A seller's agent can lose our career if we knowlingly pass along materially misleading information to a buyer such as you. And we're obligated to become aware of obviously discoverable misinformation. So, buyer consumers are protected MUCH better than a few decades ago.

However, buyers are not nearly so protected by the SD consumer protection laws when dealing with private (unrepresented) sellers. Until you and the seller enter in to a contract involving some consideration for delivery of something of value, you're mostly on your own.

Still, you and other buyers can protect yourselves from unscrupulous sellers such as the private seller who lied to you, by engaging a Buyer's Agent. In such a case, your agent is presumably trained and experienced to help you discover such lies. In fact, a really good Buyer's Agent will know what questions to ask, to protect you from "lies of omission," that is material facts that you should know about but the seller "forgot" to mention it. Further, your Buyer's Agent is obligated through a code of ethics to just plain do you well when dealing with a home purchase event that you likely do only a few times in your life.

If you are interested in concrete specifics, you may want to consult the State Real Estate Commission or a realtor, to learn about "the six fiduciary duties" required by law from a real estate agent.

Unfortunately, as you found, no private seller is held to the same high standards of conduct and competence as a licensed realtor who's career is on the line every time we repeat something we hear (or not).
Caveat Emptor!

Hope this helps.
-Lee Alley
Prudential Real Estate
Rapid City, SD

Hi Woofless

Unfortunately, what you discovered is one of the pitfalls of dealing directly with a seller.
As an agent, we have all our sellers sign full seller's disclosure forms. Once it is put in writing, any misleading or unture information could possibly be used in future legal action. Consumer fraud is not taken lightly.
As far as what kind of action you can take, I can't say. Since you didn't go into any kind of contract with the person, you really haven't suffered any damages. You might want to ask an attorney, howver, as I can't give you legal advice.

In regard to trying to warn others, I am not sure how you can go about that, either. You might want to tell the seller that you found out that the information she shared was not true. Maybe just knowing you went to the trouble of discovering the truth will be enough to make that owner clean up her act, and not mislead others.

In the future, why not work with an agent who can help protect you, verfiy facts and make sure you don't go through this again!
Best wishes...
Debbie.