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We closed on a good house in a good neighborhood a few days ago. The process went very smoothly and quickly...except for one thing.
The house has been in one family for 65 years. It' been updated and well maintained but the yard had, well, three generations of "stuff" in it. It wasn't hoarder level by any means. It was a ton of yard waste (wood and stone), unfinished "projects," and old outdoor decor.
I made it clear throughout the buying process that we expected the waste to be fully removed. Like seriously I mentioned it at least 5 times in the presence of both agents and it's clearly in the contract. It's not a pickup truck deal...in my estimation it's a 40-YD dumpster and 6 guys and chainsaws, etc. Probably two days. I mentioned it so often that the seller's agent seemed to get insulted and defensive (to this point, they've been supremely nice and genuine).
OK so as the closing milestones tick by, I see that while the seller is making good progress moving out, she hasn't touched the yard.
48 hours before we get keys...there's maybe 10% progress made on cleanup and the seller/agent realizes they way underestimated the job.
Now we have keys...she asks if they can finish the job...they say two contractors cancelled on them but they're calling in a third...she's "paying a ton of $ to make this right"...we reluctantly say OK. Meanwhile we have our contractors going over the yard getting it ready for our move in.
I'll skip over most of the keystone kops details of the interim stuff that happened and get to the good part.
The final straw was yesterday...the seller's agent swears it will be done because she paid a ton of $ to this company. I stop by the house and see the guys pull up with a Bobcat and a 40-yd roll off. Looks good so far.
The driver drives the Bobcat over a low brick wall and across the lawn...wait...I mean MY WALL AND MY LAWN.
I had agreed they could remove a gate to access the yard with the bobcat but they encounter a post that's set in concrete and I catch them starting to dig it out and hack away at it with a pick-axe.
I witness this all at once and freakin flip my lid and tell them to STOP and go away until I decide what to do. I tell the agent they cannot work unless I get insurance from her/them...someone. Meanwhile the guy tells me they can only pick up wood and stone...none of the other belongings cluttering the yard (i.e., plastic planters, broken lawn furniture, etc.).
I call my wife and tell her what's going on and say I need to walk away for a while. SHe comes by and takes over for me before I do something hastily or rash.
I can't decide how pushy I should be versus believing how earnest the seller's agent is. I can see that she did get screwed by 3 contractors who either didn't show up or were just plain hacks. Other promises she made were kept 100%. But...it's my house now and the work wasn't completed by a longshot.
I might have to write a part 2 later.
Good news is once our agent got off an airplane she made it right. Seller's agent is eating whatever it costs to finish. We love her.
Wow, I'm getting stressed just reading this. I have a friend who told me about a property in her general neighborhood in Va owned by a minister. This guy left the house and yard full of similar trash to yours. Not garbage per se but wood, construction type stuff, remodeling, carpenter stuff. Buckets, torn screens, pottery pieces. He promised he would have the stuff out. No.
Suddenly the seller's agent was dealing with it instead of the seller. At any rate, the closing went through. The seller had stated members from his church would put everything out for the city trash collection. The agent who brought the buyer even met these church members but said there weren't enough of them to work quickly. At any rate, they were going to begin one day....and didn't. After the buyer's agent called, one guy said he'd start that afternoon after work. Funny thing is, the agent who brought the buyer was having dinner out that early evening and there was that guy who was supposed to be cleaning out the house! He looked sheepish and said he'd be over the next day.
It went on and on. Finally all the junk was out of the yard and house...but on the grass strip along the curb, eking onto the pavement on one side and onto the road on the other. AND about 6' high. And yards and yards and yards long on both sides of the corner location.
The story then was that the seller said the city would pick it all up. The buyer's realtor called the city. This would take a special pickup and the city said the seller had not arranged for that. What's more, about 90% of the stuff could not be picked up in a special pickup anyway. The guy needed his own dump truck they said.
Time went by. The neighbors were getting upset with the new owner. The new owner was upset with her realtor. Her realtor was upset with the seller's agent who was getting less and less communicative. At some point the seller's agent admitted she was not hearing from her seller any more. It got to seem like she knew all along what the seller was doing.
Turned out the seller had fled the country.
So the honorable person was the buyer's realtor. It was his wife who found out the seller had moved to Europe. They got a few email addresses for him and for his family in the U.S. Sent emails...no responses.
So the buyer's realtor hired a friend with a big dump truck. The friend loaded that thing up several times. Made several trips to the dump. Finally it was over.
PS there was an escrow but not enough because the seller had sort of hidden stuff in closets and had pressed down things so they looked at first less than they really were.
Can you tell them that you will get it cleared and send them the bill? You may have to sue them.
This is what we would do here. The buyer would pay to have it hauled off properly, then take the seller to small claims court to recoup their damages. Assuming it costs less than $7500 to remove it all.
We closed on a good house in a good neighborhood a few days ago. The process went very smoothly and quickly...except for one thing.
The house has been in one family for 65 years. It' been updated and well maintained but the yard had, well, three generations of "stuff" in it. It wasn't hoarder level by any means. It was a ton of yard waste (wood and stone), unfinished "projects," and old outdoor decor.
I made it clear throughout the buying process that we expected the waste to be fully removed. Like seriously I mentioned it at least 5 times in the presence of both agents and it's clearly in the contract. It's not a pickup truck deal...in my estimation it's a 40-YD dumpster and 6 guys and chainsaws, etc. Probably two days. I mentioned it so often that the seller's agent seemed to get insulted and defensive (to this point, they've been supremely nice and genuine).
OK so as the closing milestones tick by, I see that while the seller is making good progress moving out, she hasn't touched the yard.
48 hours before we get keys...there's maybe 10% progress made on cleanup and the seller/agent realizes they way underestimated the job.
Now we have keys...she asks if they can finish the job...they say two contractors cancelled on them but they're calling in a third...she's "paying a ton of $ to make this right"...we reluctantly say OK. Meanwhile we have our contractors going over the yard getting it ready for our move in.
I'll skip over most of the keystone kops details of the interim stuff that happened and get to the good part.
The final straw was yesterday...the seller's agent swears it will be done because she paid a ton of $ to this company. I stop by the house and see the guys pull up with a Bobcat and a 40-yd roll off. Looks good so far.
The driver drives the Bobcat over a low brick wall and across the lawn...wait...I mean MY WALL AND MY LAWN.
I had agreed they could remove a gate to access the yard with the bobcat but they encounter a post that's set in concrete and I catch them starting to dig it out and hack away at it with a pick-axe.
I witness this all at once and freakin flip my lid and tell them to STOP and go away until I decide what to do. I tell the agent they cannot work unless I get insurance from her/them...someone. Meanwhile the guy tells me they can only pick up wood and stone...none of the other belongings cluttering the yard (i.e., plastic planters, broken lawn furniture, etc.).
I call my wife and tell her what's going on and say I need to walk away for a while. SHe comes by and takes over for me before I do something hastily or rash.
I can't decide how pushy I should be versus believing how earnest the seller's agent is. I can see that she did get screwed by 3 contractors who either didn't show up or were just plain hacks. Other promises she made were kept 100%. But...it's my house now and the work wasn't completed by a longshot.
I might have to write a part 2 later.
Good news is once our agent got off an airplane she made it right. Seller's agent is eating whatever it costs to finish. We love her.
Hindsight is what it is, but if there is ever a "next time", get bids to clean up and have that money put in to escrow.
This way you have more control.
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