Buyers' dad came to check house w/o agent & dog escaped

[JONOV]

Originally Posted by Mack Knife

It is not dreadful, inappropriate, discourteous or anything like that.

It is called trespassing. It is against the law.

Seek a remedy because this person (if true) probably does this to other people. Who knows what he did under the crawlspace? Did he poke around for dry rot? Pull on wiring to test stays? Move insulation or pex tubing? Did he move coax or antenna cables, telephone wires or look at alarm system wiring?

Find out if he came out and onto your property. If so, demand an accounting of his actions and then that he pay for professional inspection to verify the claim. Make him sign a non-disclosure agreement if he found something he didn't like. Last thing you need is this joke running around talking. If he refuses, report the matter to the local police.

In short, make him go through some misery.

This is no different than anyone else simply walking onto your property and then going under your house. If he opened a crawlspace door, it is unlawful entry.

People do this because no one ever calls them on it. Let it go and they do it to someone else.

All of these possibilities that he was poking around at are in the realm of what a prospective buyer would want to know. Sure, if you have anything beyond conjecture that it was the prospective buyer that left the gate open, proceed to hold them accountable. And, if you do that, kiss your chances at selling it to them goodbye. As previous posters have said, it could have been any number of people to leave it open. And it could have been you who left it not-quite-latched and the dog nudged it open. I feel your pain as a dog owner.

[jojow]

It's very possible the dad stopped by to check the crawl space. But, I also suspect he had no idea he was doing anything wrong. It probably never occurred to him to check with the agent. In his mind, the property already half belonged to his kid and he was "only" going under the house... He probably didn't even think about it.

I was showing a property to the parents of an out of town buyer. We saw everything and then they wanted to walk around the property a while (it was 12 acres). They said their goodbyes. It never occurred to them I shouldn't just leave them there on the property. I've know the buyer for over 25 years so it didn't even occur to me at first! I quickly realized I couldn't leave and found excuses to walk around some more and take more pictures.

By no means do I think the dad was correct - I just think he probably didn't know he was wrong.

If he let the dog out, he should have called someone. But, I doubt the dad knew he was doing anything wrong.