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Bought a fixer-upper in July '07. Homeowner "Sam"of 30+ years was going through bankruptcy. Well, Sam was not screwed too tightly together. While he had a brand new Caddy in the driveway, he had let the house go to heck and stay there. Couldn't see the backyard (house in on a little over an acre) for all the brush and overgrown everything..the stench in the house was horrible, place was filthy from top to bottom.
The septic passed inspection but inspector told us that more likely than not when we sell the house it could cause an issue (like a $30,000.00 issue). We asked that $15K be put into escrow and held there incase there would be a problem in the future for a potential buyer. Sam agreed and so did the court (took forever). When we sell the house and should we not have to offer the buyer 1/2 of the money replace the septic system...Sam will get his $15K back.
Fast forward to November '08. Sam neglected to tell us a whole lot about the property (his realtor was useless...from that 2% company that went out of business). We're having a harder time selling the house based on what Sam didn't disclose - not just the crazy market. Ok. So we rent the place. Renter moved in last Thursday. She and her boyfriend are in the family room that same evening (front door opens directly into the family room) with their backs to the front door. In walks Sam. Just tried the door, saw it wasn't locked and let himself in. He was looking for his $15K b/c he thought we had sold the house and have been holdig out on him. Starts going off about the septic system and why the money was put in escrow until the renter's boyfriend asked Sam to leave.
We didn't get a phone call about the incident until Tuesday. It was more of a "the range microwave isn't on a dedicated circuit and....can we get an alarm system and by the way this guy who smelled really bad and said his name was Sam showed up and ...." phone call.
Sam has obviously been watching the house and when he saw the for sale sign come down and a moving truck show up he took it upon himself to do what he did. Why he did it, I really don't know. His lawyer is excellent (usually our lawyer but Sam got to him first) and my husband had just faxed a letter over to Sam's lawyer telling him that we rented the property, not sold, stop calling our lawyer for the money...and by the way, had Sam given full disclosure, we wouldn't have bought the damn house.
As owners of the property, what do you do about Sam? What if he shows up again? I'd hate for my renter to break the lease b/c he keeps popping up - not once did he come by to any open house or at any time me or my husband were there during the renovations.
Did you ever think he just wants you to sell it and not rent it so he gets his money?
Sure, but that doesn't give hime the right to walk into someone's house like it's his. We had it on the market for 14 months. I'd love to sell it and get my money out of it (not profit...b/c at this point it's all a big loss) too. Had he been honest with us or anyone else to begin with it would still be on the market and he'd not have had one dime put in his pocket. Let alone the $15K in escrow.
Not to mention that he had just been told that it was rented.
Last edited by JerseyG; 11-28-2008 at 06:32 PM..
Reason: Wanted to add
He has no right to harass your renters, but if I were in Sam's shoes, I would be pissed. You have $15,000 of his money. That is a lot of money to be holding on to. Now you are renting the house? Are you still trying to sell it? How long do you get to keep the money? What if the house doesnt sell for 20 years? IMO you need to resolve this ASAP, it is the right thing to do.
He has no right to harass your renters, but if I were in Sam's shoes, I would be pissed. You have $15,000 of his money. That is a lot of money to be holding on to. Now you are renting the house? Are you still trying to sell it? How long do you get to keep the money? What if the house doesnt sell for 20 years? IMO you need to resolve this ASAP, it is the right thing to do.
It was either money from the sale of the house be put into escrow or that or he drop his price by $30K. Or do NEITHER and not sell his house. He had already had a few deals fall through after buyer inspections. His house had been on the market for over a year and a half...in a decent market, no less. Besides the stench and him answering the door naked, it's not hard to see why he had a hard time selling it.
He has no clue if and when someone should buy the house that the money in escrow won't be spent on the reason it was put into escrow in the first place. He THINKS it's HIS money. That's the problem.
Nope, house is off the market for the next 9 months. Wasted enough time, money and energy trying to sell it for the past year plus.
I'm not sure I need to resolve anything for Sam. Keep in mind, the house and the property belong to ME, not him. He created his own problems, I didn't make any up for him.
Tell your tenant to call the police next time Sam shows up. He is trespassing and borderline stalking. (IMO)
I did and that's what I tell any of my tenants who see someone that they don't know walking through their backyard or anything of the sort. Just never had any former home owner quite like this one.
Everything has been dealt with through the lawyers before...which is why we sent his lawyer a letter stating that after 14 months on the market we had to rent it -and that was 2 weeks before she even moved in. Yet he still shows up.
I'm thinking if he ever shows up again I'll have to speak to my atty about how deal with it in a way he won't ever show up again.
Nothing like harrassing a tenant who may actually buy the house...and then go on and on about a septic system that may need to be replaced in 10 years or sooner depending on the size of the family and an escrow account and he wants his money and blah, blah, blah. Just not playing with a full deck.
Makes me hope he lost his documents when he closed on the house and had no idea where I live.
Just curious - why $30,000 for septic system? We were just faced with the unfortune of having to replace our 50-year-old septic tank. It was $3900 for a new tank and distribution box - consistent with 2 other estimates we got. We'll replace the leach lines within the next 5 years and were quoted (from a few sources) that would be another $2-3000.
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