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The agent came to show my house, brought with her a couple, and did not find out till the end, the agent brought her husband? I was outside waiting at bus stop and told the agent if she needed anything to let me know. She came out at one point and asked how to get into the garage, i showed her where both openers where, one clearly on the garage itself. When i went to open it, turns out they had messed with the lock and locked the door so when the pulley started to pull up the door, it pulled against a locked door and the door is now damaged. The agent said "hon thats a shame, there should really be agent instructions on the listing". THERE WAS< SHE DIDNT READ THEM, even the actual listing says electric garage door. Plus why is her husband here, why is he touching anything?
All home inspectors know never to touch a garage door button or opener until the garage door is checked to see if it is locked, and that it appears the rollers, track, etc are intact.
That agent is wrong. Where the sticky wicket is, according to what you posted, is that THEY locked the door without your knowledge, and YOU pressed the opener button. They were wrong to lock it.....but if they have no integrity they could argue that YOU opened the door without checking to see if it was locked. Mind you, that is a weak argument, IMHO.
I would speak to your agent, and call the agent's broker and let them know they will be getting a bill for the damage, or you will be seeing them in small claims court. They should cover the damage since they locked the door. If someone drove into the driveway and pressed the opener they would in no way know it was locked and the damage would be done.
If the brokerage is smart, they would apologize and pay. That agent is an idiot.....no instructions are needed here, only common sense. The husband being there has no bearing on the issue.
Agree w/ Brandon as the agent should be responsible for the damages.
But I'd like to touch on the husband of the agent being present.
As a female agent, I will sometimes have my husband with me if for any reason the hairs on the back of my neck stand up or if I feel something is just *off* about the situation.
I agree with Chuckity. We have had several times that agents in our office took either another agent, or their spouse with them when showing property to a new client that they didn't know well. It is the smart thing to do if you get any sort of bad vibe. Usually, though, the accompanying party lets the client see they are there, and then waits outside, out of the way.
I agree that the brokerage should take responsibility if the agent will not. The damage was caused due to their presence in the house and their actions, regardless of the fact that it was you who pushed the button. If someone asked me how to open the garage door, I would also just go over and push the button, the thought that they might have locked the door would never have crossed my mind.
I have to ask though...are electronic garage openers uncommon in your area? Or is the system an unusual one? Because if an agent asked that question here, or locked the garage door after seeing the opener on the ceiling, they would be laughed at.
I agree that the brokerage should take responsibility if the agent will not. The damage was caused due to their presence in the house and their actions, regardless of the fact that it was you who pushed the button.
I'm really surprised by these responses.
I thought the listing contract would have some indemnity clause against (non-malicious) damage done by the agent or visitors that might happen in the ordinary course yadda yadda etc.
mr. rational. Really? I could see for small damage, like a client broke a ceramic vase while visiiting, but extensive damage to a garage door? Now she is saying it was not her husband, but the buyers, not sure if that even makes a difference. We can not get her manager to call us at al, and the agent finally said she will agree to an estimate, but is not agreeing yet to pay. The other thing is their was only one instruction in the "agent instructions" and it was specifically about the garage door.
Thank you for your postings, yes i thought an apology would have been nice; they pretty much blamed it on the listing agent for not posting directions (as i mentioned, she did post them), in the agent notes, and high-tailed it out of there, and then we have been hard pressed to get any contact from anyone. Very strange and unprofessional, seems customer service these days is a lost art. Even if the manager called us to let us know she was aware of the situation would have been nice. She would not call us back at all. And this was the first showing; this is going to be fun!
I guess I do not understand about the instruction thing. If the garage was unlocked and there were two openers, that is normal....what instructions were even needed?
I thought the problem here was that a normally never locked garage door was locked by the folks looking, and the door was then opened, (a normal function) with it locked, causing damage.
If there was something unique where instructions were needed and not heeded, then we are missing something. So far I'm totally on your side here....but is something missing? what is the story about "instructions"...?
Frank
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