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We just started having showings on our house-2 yesterday...long story short..
We have a driveway that is on an upward hill into our garage. We had 2 showings yesterday-the first at 11:45-12:45. Our neighbors saw that the agent parked on the street. We came home-had lunch and then left 15 minutes before the second showing. We have 2 cars and they park next 2 each other. We left in both cars and my husband was outside and heard the garage door come down without any problems when we were leaving for the second showing. His car was parked in the driveway on his side and he left after me.
I drove by our house during the second showing (2-3) to see if the people had left and this time there was a SUV parked in our driveway near the garage-in the middle of the driveway. I drove around and came back after they had left. When I returned and went in the house, the garage door closed funny and when my husband came home later in his own car and parked on his side and closed the garage door it made an awful sound and buckled.
We went outside and looked and a very small dent was in our garage door in the center (not where we would park on either side of the garage door) and is now not functioning properly. If we are both home-we usually have one car parked in the driveway on the side.
Our agent came over and saw the dent and also saw a skidmark on our driveway half up. It appears that the buyers agent parked halfway up and realized that there is too much of a hill and needed to go further up the driveway and gunned the car and ran into our garage door.
Our listing agent called the buyer agent and the buyer agent said she did not hit the garage door.
Our listing agent did not give us any recourse. So, is there some type of insurance policy that listing agents carry to protect homeowners from damage in a house during a listing?
And has anyone had this experience? We have nothing to gain in making a false claim-so either the agent was not aware she hit the door (highly doubtful) or the agent does not want to confess. We have spent a lot of time and money getting t=our house ready-we do not want to pay for a repair that we didn't cause. And we do not want to claim it on our homeowners.
Oh, dear . . . that's a tough one. There's no way to prove that the damage wasn't there before the showing other than your word against theirs And the other agent may not even realize that they hit it -- those SUVs front-ends are often not visible from the driver's seat. It does sound like they had trouble on the hill. To me, it would appear to be a matter for her car insurance company.
I would call a garage door repair service, find out what is involved in fixing the door, and find out if the dent and resulting pressure on the door was the cause of the problem. It could be just a coincidence that the motor started giving out just as the door got tapped. If it was door displacement that caused the motor to grind and the buckling, and you can get a statement from the repair company to that effect, then you have probable cause, since you seem to have your ducks in a row as far as timing, etc., and being able to describe the car in the driveway.
You may have to file an accident report with your local police, before you can file a claim with the buyer agent's insurance company. Alternatively, you could take her to small claims court.
First, make sure she isn't bringing the buyer to make an offer. ;-) As far as disclosing it, you can simply say, "A buyers agent hit our garage door, and we had to repair it. Here are the receipts." Done deal.
Depending on your situation it might be worth making a claim with your home owners insurance or asking your listing agent to deal with it. Odds are if you are selling it will not effect your payments on whatever house you are buying, thus there is no financial reason not to file a claim.
Alternatively, it might be FASTER to have the listing agent deal with this so that the broken garage door does not slow down any potential sale which would of course delay the agent's ability to get paid. You might want to point out this fact to the agent...
Oh, dear . . . that's a tough one. There's no way to prove that the damage wasn't there before the showing other than your word against theirs And the other agent may not even realize that they hit it -- those SUVs front-ends are often not visible from the driver's seat. It does sound like they had trouble on the hill. To me, it would appear to be a matter for her car insurance company.
I would call a garage door repair service, find out what is involved in fixing the door, and find out if the dent and resulting pressure on the door was the cause of the problem. It could be just a coincidence that the motor started giving out just as the door got tapped. If it was door displacement that caused the motor to grind and the buckling, and you can get a statement from the repair company to that effect, then you have probable cause, since you seem to have your ducks in a row as far as timing, etc., and being able to describe the car in the driveway.
You may have to file an accident report with your local police, before you can file a claim with the buyer agent's insurance company. Alternatively, you could take her to small claims court.
First, make sure she isn't bringing the buyer to make an offer. ;-) As far as disclosing it, you can simply say, "A buyers agent hit our garage door, and we had to repair it. Here are the receipts." Done deal.
I would think if the buyer agent had to rev the car that fast to get up the driveway and hit the door, the clients will not be putting an offer in on the house.
I would think if the buyer agent had to rev the car that fast to get up the driveway and hit the door, the clients will not be putting an offer in on the house.
That just meant the buyer's agent didn't have a clue how to drive.
The listing agreement probably has a clause about damages caused by others. Your listing agent did not cause the damage and should not be held responsible.
Call the Broker of the Buyers agent and make a complaint.
Depending on your situation it might be worth making a claim with your home owners insurance or asking your listing agent to deal with it. Odds are if you are selling it will not effect your payments on whatever house you are buying, thus there is no financial reason not to file a claim.
Alternatively, it might be FASTER to have the listing agent deal with this so that the broken garage door does not slow down any potential sale which would of course delay the agent's ability to get paid. You might want to point out this fact to the agent...
Do not follow this advice. Don't even call your insurance company. 80% of insurance companies look at person for loss and claims, so there is an obvious financial reason to not file or even call to inquire.
Pay to to get it fixed and move on. I cringe when people tell me they had a $500 claim payout after their deductible of $1000. Really, you got $500 and now your premium is going to go up $400 for next 5 years, until the claim falls off???
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