ARE WE ENTITLED TO INTERNET AVAILABILITY?

In a recent Facebook post, an unfortunate man who works from home told the story of buying a house that he loved, only to find out that, despite the major cable company’s assurances, prior to closing, that they provided service to his area, ultimately neither they nor anyone else would provide Internet service to his house because it was too far away from a “node.” The only work around he had was to use the fantastically expensive data on his cell phone as a WIFI hotspot or pay more than $50,000 to bring a line closer to his house.

We all know that when we sell a house today, we are required to disclose material defects, water or fire damage, and all such things in order to make information equal and allow the buyer to make a fair offer considering what may need to be done to the house after purchase. The question this post raises is, given the integral nature of the Internet to nearly everything we do today, from email, business and banking to television and social interactions, does the gentleman in this predicament have a cause of action against the previous owners of the house for failure to disclose the lack of Internet availability prior to the sale. In other words, is the Internet now effectively a utility whose availability must be disclosed prior to sale and can he abrogate the sale if it was not? I believe this is an issue of first impression, and has not yet been litigated, but it would be interesting to do so.

What are your thoughts?