the sellers from *h*e*l*l*

[pixielou]

i just think i need to vent. i think we really do have the sellers from *h*e*l*l*.

we went under contract on our house in mid january. originally we were going to close in february, but a bunch of issues were raised at our inspections, so the closing was put off until march. 1 week before closing - we were told we had to postpone. apparently the sellers hadn't found a new place to live - they claim they didn't realize they had to move out before they sold. a couple more postponements - and we finally close - 3+ months after going under contract.


so we finally closed last week. the sellers did not give their house keys to their attorney who represented them at the closing. so at the closing - we were only given the one key to the front door that the re agent had. and the sellers still won't hand over the keys. there are 4 other doors to the house that we do not have keys to. granted we are going to rekey the locks - but it's the principle of the thing that is getting to me. plus, we have a ton of contractors coming in the next few weeks before we move in - so i would prefer to wait until they are finished the work before i rekey.

to make matters worse. dh and i went to the house on saturday morning. we found mr. seller wandering around the back yard. i know it's hard for the guy - he bought the house new 50+ years ago. he's like 150 years old and i think his mind is definitely going. i called the re agent, who nicely came over and removed him from our property. but i'm so paranoid now that this is going to become an on-going problem. nothing like a senile man wandering around with keys to your house.

i just needed to vent a bit.

~pixie

[ktsb]

Oh my. Sorry you are dealing with this. I think you might have to prepare yourself for future "visits" by the old guy. Maybe he'll get over it in time?

they claim they didn't realize they had to move out before they sold. a couple more postponements - and we finally close - 3+ months after going under contract.


:eek:

Might want to go ahead and rekey it now.

Let me also just say pat yourself on the back. You have far more patience than the average person!!

[cgmom313]

yikes... sorry to hear about this. I guess I shouldnt complain tha we are still waiting for one garage door opener since we closed in Mar.

Like ktsb said I would probably bite the bullet and change the locks. They seem a little crazy and for your own safety and sanity it would probably be best.

Good Luck!!!

[MrsBeckyLP]

Oh, ouch. It sounds like this old guy is having a hard time letting go.

Does the old guy seem harmless enough? I'd hound them for the other keys, because like you, I'd prefer to wait to have the locks changed until the contractors leave.

Good luck.

[Asha]

i would contact your lawyer immediately. there's usually a grace period in which the seller has money in an escrow account. if there are any problems with the transaction, you need to get it documented right away. it might be possible to have the seller end up paying to have the locks changed since he didn't hand over all the keys.

[pixielou]

thanks for the sympathies. the painters will be finished on friday, so i'm having the place rekeyed then. i figure the roofers will need limited indoor access - and i can just be sure to be there then to let them in. we don't have anything in the house - i'm not real concerned about the sellers trying to steal something - i'm just more concerend that mr. seller is having a hard time letting go, and that he'll want to let himself in and reminesce. . .

asha i actually thought about calling my attorney. they also did not clean the place. but i would rather just put all of this behind me and try to get on with my new life in my new house.

i think what gets to me the most - clearly these sellers were elderly and extremely uneducated about the selling process. imo - it was their attorney's responsibility and their re agents responsibility to educate them about the selling process. if the attorney knew he was representing them at the closing, shouldn't he have known that he needed to turn over keys? shouldn't the re agent have asked them what their housing plans were for once they sold? it's ridiculous. and it seems like it will never end. just today i got a call from the sellers re agent - mrs. seller apparently went by the house yesterday afternoon to pick up her mail - and she is upset that i have removed the mailbox. so why is the re agent calling me? it's my house - i can do whatever the f*%^ i want with the mailbox.

sorry for the additional venting. . . it has been an extremely frustrating process.

~pixie

[ktsb]

:eek: And why is she still having her mail delivered there???

O.K. this agent is a loser. I can't even believed she called to tell you that.

What did you say?

[Sophia]

Seriously, re-key now and have your own attorney or agent handle anything the seller or the seller's agent "needs" from now on. I can't begin to say how ridiculous I think it was of the seller's agent to call you about the mail. Do they not know about having your mail forwarded?

[snowzilla]

I wouldn't be waiting to have the locks re-keyed (although I understand the factors behind why you ARE waiting) - and as far as the mailbox goes, I'd remind the agent that the former owners have no business looking inside your mailbox even if it WAS still hanging. Legally, they shouldn't be setting foot on your property, let alone sticking their noses in your mailbox.

I'm sorry you're going through this - what a ridiculous and unfortunate situation. It really sounds like they have no idea how the sale of a house works.

[mamax2]

We had a similar situation with a house we bought once. While we were having HW floors installed and having the place re-carpeted (since the former owners seemed to think the ENTIRE house was a suitable litter box :rolleyes: ), the sellers actually came back and STOLE some of our new carpeting out of the garage. The carpet installer yelled at them, but they left with it! They also didn't clean the place and left behind numerous 'gifts' (aka: stuff they didn't want to move back to their country of origin since it was an international move). Finally, our attorney took THEIR side! I was totally appalled. It was such a cluster you-know-what, but in the end, they left, it was over and we moved on.

[singerwife]

Oh wow. I'm sorry.

This happened to us, too. Our closing got delayed an additional 2 weeks, and on the day of the walk-through, their moving van had just shown up. The guy said he'd just pay us an extra $20 per day until they got it all taken care of.

Um, no. We extended an additional 24 hours, with the stipulation that anything beyond that period was $1,000 per day.

They left the place filthy. Seriously. We replaced the fridge and stove after trying to scrape up the (literally) inch of dried-on orange juice crud at the bottom. The place stunk so bad.

[pixielou]

the locks are *finally* changed. the locksmith never showed on friday, but i screamed enough so that he came on saturday and didn't charge me the weekend rate.

on other news, when i arrived at the house friday morning, someone had clearly been in my garage. a bunch of trash i had neatly piled in front of the garage had been moved into the garage, and the trash i had thrown into the front of the garage had been neatly piled in the back of the garage. also, a couple bricks were missing and some empty buckets were missing. so i went to the police station and filed a police report. i can't say for certain it was mr. seller who was in the garage, but if it was the neighborhood kids - i wouldn't expect them to be neating up - i would expect to find empty beer cans and cigarette butts. the police claim that they will increase police presence around the house. they told me to put up a "no trespassing" sign - which i did. they say that with the sign, they will be able to arrest anybody they see on my property.

my painter also told me that on thursday afternoon a car pulled into the driveway and sat there for about 15 minutes. he said that nobody got out of the car.

i feel a lot better now that the locks are changed. i will feel even better once we finally get the garage door replaced (the garage door is completely broken and doesn't close all the way. i didn't think it would be a big deal in teh short term since i'm only keeping my trash in the garage.)

~pixie

[Sophia]

Make sure that the frequency for the garage door opener remote had been changed. You wouldn't want the crazy old seller getting in that way.

[pixielou]

actually the current garage door is not automatic. so i don't have to worry about that - not that i would have even thought of that. we plan on keeping our lawn mower, snow blower and other yard and garden tools in the garage, so i do know to make sure the garage can be securely locked.

~pixie

[junkinmytrunk]

Pixie - I have been following your situation. How very creepy. They clearly are emotionally attached to *your* house. And I thought my seller was bad when we found tons of (excuse, totally gross and TMI) pubic hair in / around her kitchen sink, among other nasty things. Shudder.

I can't imagine what s/he could be thinking, stopping back to poke around in the garage.

[Rose]

It seems like it's beyond attachment to your home and they are senile are have something else going on due to age. Their behavior isn't normal so you really can't know if their attorneys/REs told them what. It could have gone in one ear and out the other.

I really hope changing the locks fixes the problem. Good luck.

[pixielou]

just a quick update. kind of amusing. we have totally redone the exterior of the house - new siding, roof, windows, garage door. apparently mr. seller came by the neighborhood the other day and couldn't find the house. so mr. seller thinks we tore down the house and built a new one! this was relayed to me by one of our neighbors. mr. seller is senile enough that the neighbor could not convince him that it was still his old house, just with a new color on it. though personally i am quite happy to let him believe that we tore his house down! i'm hoping this puts an end to our seller attachment issues.

in other good news, all the construction on the house should be finished in the next few days. and hopefully we'll be able to really start making this our new home.

~pixie

[ktsb]

Too funny! And good for you yes!!

Congrats on seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

[artist]

just a quick update. kind of amusing. we have totally redone the exterior of the house - new siding, roof, windows, garage door. apparently mr. seller came by the neighborhood the other day and couldn't find the house. so mr. seller thinks we tore down the house and built a new one! this was relayed to me by one of our neighbors. mr. seller is senile enough that the neighbor could not convince him that it was still his old house, just with a new color on it. though personally i am quite happy to let him believe that we tore his house down! i'm hoping this puts an end to our seller attachment issues.

in other good news, all the construction on the house should be finished in the next few days. and hopefully we'll be able to really start making this our new home.

~pixie


Oh my goodness! Kind of sad in a way, but I can definitely see how this would be a relief for you!

[greenbunny]

Not really related to the point of your update, but HOLY CRAP you guys work fast! All that done since the end of April! Wanna come work on my place? :p

[pixielou]

but HOLY CRAP you guys work fast!

well - none of it was diy. lets just say i've been writing tons of checks!

fwiw - i had all the contractors lined up before we closed. the monday after closing, the painters started to do their thing. . .and we've been one huge messy construction site ever since!

~pixie