Sunday, May 09, 2010

In Which I Must Grade, and In Which I STILL Haven't Gotten into MY House

The last part first. The seller still isn't out. She was supposed to be out yesterday, but as we all know, moving takes longer than one thinks it takes. You might say, "Um, what the hell, Crazy? How can this person not be out even after your close without some sort of agreement?" Well, what I've learned is that this is "normal" (and totally legal) in this area and that there's actually nothing to be done about it other than to suck it up. Annoying. I'll say this: the next time I buy a house, I totally am going to ask that we write into the offer that the person be out by the closing, because this waiting around is no fun at all.

That said, she's mostly out and SHOULD be out by today. I went over there yesterday unannounced and chatted with her for about 10 minutes to get a sense of where she was with the moving, and while I was nice, I do think it was good that I went over and didn't just call her on the phone. She's supposed to call me when she's totally out of the house, but I intend to go over late this afternoon again if I haven't heard from her. I mean, I may have to put up with this, but I don't have to make it comfortable for her.

At any rate, what I should do in the meantime is finish up with my grading for the semester, which shouldn't actually take that long if I just set my mind to doing it. It's not really what I want to do with my day today, but I know that if I get it done, I'll ultimately feel very happy and like it's not hanging over me.

So that's the latest. Perhaps another real post later.

7 comments:

Bardiac said...

Oh, ugh, that's just frustrating.

I hope you get to go have your place to yourself soon!

Terminal Degree said...

Your realtor totally should have written this into the contract. In most places, a seller has to pay RENT for each day they are still in the house after closing. Also, you should call your insurance company on Monday...if she burns the place down, are you covered? (Not trying to freak you out, really. But your insurance company could be a big help here in making her leave.)

Give her a deadline. Be firm. It's your home, and she could have gotten a storage unit and found a hotel by now. She's using you for free rent. Let her know that your movers will be coming on a specific date (even if that's not true), or that you will be moving your first load in on X and need her gone first.

Good luck!

PhysioProf said...

If she doesn't have your permission to continue to be there, then isn't she trespassing?

Susan said...

I'm surprised this is allowed -- whenever I've sold a house, it's been really clear that everything has to be out before the final walk through....

And if not, there is rent. Which you still have to pay if you can't move in.

WV- redotype, which is what maybe some students should have done with their papers? (And I know what you mean about work that won't take long but you don't want to do...)

Dr. Crazy said...

First, the good news: My house is officially vacated! Huzzah!

Second, I understand the consternation that you've all expressed about the local customs of my area regarding transfer of property. All I can tell you is that, yes, this is totally the norm here (as a colleague of mine said yesterday when I was complaining about the situation, "You know, in every other place in America, you'd call the cops if the seller wasn't out. Somehow, though, 'established laws' and 'ownership' apparently mean, 'but then the seller has up to 30 days to screw around and there's nothing you can do.'").

At any rate, she is gone, I am happy, and the first thing I'm doing tomorrow is calling about getting the locks changed :)

Maude said...

When the SB bought his house in Home City, the seller stayed for a whole month! It was ridiculous!! And it took us five days to clean out the mess she left. Fortunately you don't have to do this. We did, however, go to home depot and buy new locks and changed them the day she left.

Doctor Pion said...

An alternative, which is what we did, is to charge rent for each day they stay past closing. We felt that gave us some legal recourse if the property was damaged between closing and occupancy.