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Who is responsible for damaged caused by buyer prior to closing?

HU-447197331
last year

To make a very long story shorter, the buyer went in weeks before closing, without my knowledge or permission, and made a lot of changes. He was only supposed to go in with his realtor to do some VA required repairs. Turns out he had been going in for weeks prior to closing doing things NOT required such as painting, removing wallpaper, putting in a new ceiling, moldings, carpet and security system. None of that would have bothered me, but he decided to put my stuff into the storage sheds in the backyard. When we moved earlier in the year, there wasnt enough space in the uhaul, so we had to leave stuff behind. We wanted those things to remain in the office room and bedroom closets until we could come back for them.


The problem is the buyer broke a lot of stuff. He was very careless. Shockingly so. In addition, a lot of stuff is missing. When I asked about the missing items, he and his friend exchanged ”uh oh” looks looks before shrugging. I would go so far as to say if I had known how much was missing or destroyed, we wouldn’t have bothered to go back for it. I estimate, between broken and missing items, we’re out about $15,000. That’s not counting sentimental items like photo albums and a quilt my mother made.


Any suggestions? I truly have no idea where to go from here.


Comments (32)

  • Lisa Dipiro
    last year

    Our buyers wanted to come in to measure for furniture before buying — after they had been in two or three times with realtor before offering— we said NOPE.

  • HU-447197331
    Original Author
    last year

    They never gave us the option to say no. We didn’t even know they moved our things until we were on the road back to the state where our house sold. In fact, our realtor denied all of it. When my former neighbor told us what was going on, we called him. He said our things were still in the house AND that the only work done on the house was that which was required by the VA. Both were lies. From the start it felt like my realtor was working for the buyer. The buyer had a realtor in the same office.

  • millworkman
    last year

    Has the deal closed? Maybe a call to management at the realtors office after conferring with your attorney.

  • bry911
    last year
    last modified: last year

    I really don't have much experience in criminal law.... However, this is certainly sounfs like a crime. You should contact an attorney in the area where the crime was committed.

    Odds are the attorney is going to contact the buyers and ask them if they would like to accept responsibility without your filing a criminal complaint, or if they would prefer that you file a criminal complaint and have the judge order restitution in addition to any criminal penalties.

    Once you file a criminal complaint your insurance may reimburse you for damages if you decide to file a claim, but I suspect they will challenge several things about this, so I am not sure that is your best option. I would advise against trying to DIY this.

  • Stax
    last year

    "They never gave us the option to say no."

    NONSENSE!

  • bry911
    last year

    I can't imagine why the OP would even need to say, "no, you may not burglarize my house."

    ---

    Allowing the buyer to supervise repairs required to close is a common procedure, it doesn't give the buyer permission to do other things and doesn't require saying "no".


    Your realtor shouldn't even have let you close, in my opinion and I suspect they may share some liability.

  • bichonbabe
    last year

    So sorry this happened to you ! I would contact the police right away and file charges for trespassing and theft and property damage . I would also contact the insurance company and also the broker.

    When we sold our house, our buyers wanted early access and we told them no. They thought we were jerks but we told them if they wanted in the house move the closing date up !

  • Stax
    last year

    You think that the owner should have known that asking permission to enter the house for seemingly innocuous purposes implied asking permission to burglarize the joint? lol

  • bry911
    last year
    last modified: last year

    @Stax - Just to be clear, I understood your original intent but I was trying to politely tell you that you were incorrect, without typing in bold and capitalized letters... NONSENSE! I understand my error now...

    When the seller agreed to allow the buyer to make the necessary repairs to complete the purchase via VA, they lost the right to refuse the buyer's entry into the property. That is a rather common and perfectly reasonable request when doing VA loans. It is often better to let the buyers make repairs for VA loans as they can be quite particular and you run the risk of having your repairs rejected.

    Securing the property and monitoring entries into the properties is the job of the selling realtor. There is no reason for a seller to take any affirmative action to deny access that was never allowed in the first place. There is no reason for a seller to deny a buyer's right to inspect and approve repairs done per the sales contract as that would likely increase the seller's liability for those repairs and when functioning properly the selling realtor will be monitoring those entries.

    What you really have here is a buyer who acted inappropriately and a realtor who failed in their duty.

    ETA: The sellers could, of course, reject the offer. In fact, they can prevent any buyer from ever entering their property by rejecting every showing and every offer, but few people can sell their house without allowing the buyers access.

  • Anonymous Penguin
    last year
    last modified: last year

    I'm OP's daughter and I'd like to make a comment as well.

    One thing was promised by our realtor, and that was our belongings being safe. Instead (and we discovered this when we went to get our stuff), the buyer and his FRIEND moved everything outside into our two storage units. They threw things, precious BREAKABLE valuables in garbage bags (some mixed with food from the pantry), piled heavy things on paintings and just didn't even make an effort to move things carefully. We didn't even know this happened! We were told by our realtor that logically things would need to moved to put in new carpet and other minor repairs. We put serious emphasis to our realtor that there were things in the house that couldn't be exposed to the state's weather/climate. We were told they just needed to shift things around. And they had plenty of room to do so in that house. We were given no notice, and especially no notice that the buyer and his buddy (a stranger) were going to be handling our items like this.

    Was it legal for the buyer and his friend to move our stuff? We were told it was the buyer and his AGENT helping him at all times. Or at least that is what our realtor told us. Then again, both our realtor and the buyer's worked in the same agency. Just really feels like our own realtor was favoring the buyer over us.

  • bry911
    last year

    @Anonymous Penguin asked, "Was it legal for the buyer and his friend to move our stuff?"


    They didn't have a legal right to damage your stuff and they had a legal duty to make an effort to not damage your stuff. However, who is to blame for the damage, the extent to which they are to blame, and whether or not this is a tort or a crime is another matter. You should consult with an attorney who is in the area that the house is in.

  • chispa
    last year

    If you don't need to sell and aren't worried about losing more money, then get a lawyer, file a suit against the buyer/realtors/brokers and have the whole sale come to a screeching halt. If you are really angry and feel like you were victimized, you can take action and do something about it ... or you can just close the sale and stay angry for a long time. Your decision to either move on or punish the bad/unethical behavior of the seller, realtors and brokers.

    The only suggestion we can all give you is to go to a lawyer immediately. When is the closing?

  • bry911
    last year
    last modified: last year

    The buyer's liability for their negligent damage of your personal property is actionable until the statute of limitations expires. You do lose some leverage once the sale is closed but none of your right to recovery.

    Nor do you necessarily need to file a suit to get recompense. If they are charged with a crime any plea deal will likely include restitution. Or you might offer a reasonable settlement without filing.

  • elcieg
    last year

    The buyer is breaking and entering. It is still your home. You still insure it. It is a crime.

    Bring charges.


    How did he get access to your home? Who ever gave buyer a key is an accessory to the crime.

    Bring charges.


  • PRO
    Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
    last year

    Like most RE transactions when they get messy, this is still a negotiation.


    You gave the buyer permission to enter and do some work. How much is up for interpretation. The rest is going to be unclear if you pursue damages.

  • elcieg
    last year

    OP did not give buyer permission to go into her house. T"he buyer went in weeks before closing, without my knowledge or permission, and made a lot of changes."

  • Lisa Dipiro
    last year

    OP said he was supposed to go in with realtor to do VA required changes. Sooooo

  • bry911
    last year
    last modified: last year

    I would advise against a criminal complaint prior to talking to an attorney. Only the state (polity) can file charges on someone. You can file a criminal complaint but in matters like this the timing of the criminal complaint may be far more important than the complaint itself in getting recompense.

    In my experience prosecutors are unlikely to seriously pursue things like this, however, may give an assist for recovery. So your criminal complaint on its own may never go past his response.

  • ShadyWillowFarm
    last year

    How did they buyer get into the house without the agent? I believe you can file a claim against the agents insurance if the agent let they buyers into the house unsupervised. Any agents here? I am sure there is some protection for the buyer if a prospective buyer damages seller property.

  • worthy
    last year
    last modified: last year

    As a lender, I inspected a home we were lending on for a few months till it closed. Coincidentally, the mortgagor (borrower) was moving out and the buyer was moving in a few of his belongings before the deal closed.

    He never closed. But since he and his goods were in there with the owners' permission, he claimed he was now a tenant. It took the owners many months to have him removed after hearings processes at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

    OP, git thee to a lawyer!

  • bry911
    last year

    My 2 cents...

    Most U.S. states hold that parties in a real estate transaction are invitees rather than tenants. You only become tenants when the buyer or seller clearly permits your living there before or after the close. Also, in most U.S. states sellers that refuse to vacate after the closing are considered trespassers and can be removed by an expedited detainer that only takes a few days.

    -----

    A note on the criminal/civil debate: Many of the things that the OP described are illegal but not really actionable. For example, how was the OP harmed because the buyer entered the property without authorization and painted the walls of his future house before the new carpet was installed? It is fair to point out that the buyer shouldn't have been there, but so long as the sale proceeds the seller has no damages. So there might be a trespass, but there are no damages from painting the wall and I am not sure that anyone is going to pursue this type of trespass.

    The only damages the OP has mentioned are items that were packed and stored improperly, plus a few things that seem to have been improperly disposed of. The question as to criminal vs. civil then becomes whether or not the buyer had some right to do the things he did. If the buyer was granted a right to enter the property and ready it for carpet, then they were granted the right to pack and store things even if they did so inappropriately. Where the buyer gets into criminal trouble is packing and storing items from rooms that were not necessary or disposing of items they had no right to dispose of.

    -----

    I suspect that this is an opportunity for the OP to recover some reasonable amount from the seller and their realtor after consulting with an attorney.

  • bichonbabe
    last year

    I would argue that any possible insurance claim would require a police report. And filing a police report is free, while engaging an attorney will be expensive.

  • ShadyWillowFarm
    last year

    Insurance claims of damage do not require a police report, however, theft would.

  • bichonbabe
    last year

    The OP stated some items were missing. That’s theft.

  • bry911
    last year
    last modified: last year

    @bichonbabe said, "I would argue that any possible insurance claim would require a police report. And filing a police report is free, while engaging an attorney will be expensive."

    I submit, this demonstrates why the OP needs to see an attorney. Almost all homeowners policies will have a vacancy exclusion. Thirty days is the most common with sixty being the second most common and more than that being rare. Any personal property that is damaged or destroyed once the property has been vacant for longer than that period will not be covered. So I would not advise the OP file a claim and get an item on their CLUE, which will increase their rates, without being sure they are covered.

    There are a thousand different nuances to this situation. Certainly, if the seller entered the property more than they were permitted to do in the agreement, then they trespassed. However, that doesn't mean the OP is going to get awarded damages...

    Suppose the buyer argues that the seller had a duty to prepare the home for the improvement and the seller breached the contract by not doing so. When the buyer arrived and found the home was not ready for carpet, they took action to limit the seller's breach which could be greater than the entire purchase agreement. In their rush to "protect the seller" some items were disposed of and some were damaged but that damage was the result of the seller's breach and should be ignored as it was a consequence of an attempt to limit damages.

    An attorney is likely going to attempt to remove that defense before it can be made by getting the seller to directly or indirectly agree to certain facts.

  • worthy
    last year

    in most U.S. states sellers that refuse to vacate after the closing are considered trespassers and can be removed by an expedited detainer that only takes a few days.


    I had no idea the US state courts system works with such effectiveness and dispatch!




  • bry911
    last year
    last modified: last year

    I had no idea the US state courts system works with such effectiveness and dispatch!

    Really? I was somehow under the impression that you had owned rental property in a lot of areas. There are sometimes a lot of hoops to jump through for detainers, but once you get to court it is usually fast. Once I file for a detainer I can be on the docket the next day that detainers are heard in most areas. I have never had to wait more than 2 weeks for a court date (other than the pandemic) in any state I have had rental property in.

    ETA: Again, in every state I know of, holdover sellers as adverse possessors and not tenants. They don't have tenant rights. They can typically be removed by local law enforcement in a few days, some states with extensive squatter rights will move that out to a week.

  • worthy
    last year
    last modified: last year

    you had owned rental property in a lot of areas

    Aside from long-term land leases and vacant land, all but one were in the Greater Toronto Area.

    Will be interesting to see how this case of squatters works out.

    While renoing a six-plex in downtown Toronto, we let one of the crew live in part of the home just to avert such problems. In Ontario, a squatter moves in and the only legal remedy is to proceed through the Landlord and Tenant Board. Plan for a six-13 month delay before the Sheriff's officers finally arrive.

  • bry911
    last year
    last modified: last year

    Will be interesting to see how this case of squatters works out.

    You are unlikely to see the resolution as it is not "newsworthy." However, by Maryland law an unlawful detainer must be heard within 15 days of being filed. So, since there is no pre-fling notice in Maryland at most about two weeks to resolve, but most likely within 8 days.

  • rrah
    last year

    I previously read the article linked above about the squatters in Maryland. It was a bit unclear, but I don't think the buyers have actually closed on the property. They have a sales contract. The solution is simple. Don't close until the squatters are out. The bank needs to take care of the problem.

  • HU-39413879
    last year
    last modified: last year

    This is why you do NOT let anyone in to a property prior to COE.