Gad what a mess. We now own a house but it was a close thing. I made difficulties. Loud difficulties. I have been castigated my whole life for my attention to detail. "Picky, fussy, anal retentive, nervous, irritating, worrier, complainer, and holier than thou are just some of the labels I've had pinned to me. I can't help it. It is how I am made. As a nurse this quality made me very valuable, and it drove people crazy. But, I know the devil is usually to be found in the details.
We were signing the pounds of paper necessary to purchase the house when something caught my eye. We were signing about improvements to the property. The new vinyl six foot fence was not on the form. I asked why. No one knew. The real estate agent excused himself to go to the restroom. I refused to sign anything else until he returned. Then I asked point blank about the oversight. He hemmed and hawed and didn't answer. I said, "This deal will stop right here until the fence goes on the land improvement page." More silence. Now the bank person, title person and lawyer (Mark) were looking at him. Bank lady offered to hand write the description in. Real estate agent stopped her. "You can't put it on there because they don't own the fence. It is on the seller's property." More silence. All was suddenly clear. I was very angry. I did not yell or cry or have a fit. I made eye contact with the real estate agent and said in clear loud tones, "So you lied to us? And you were going to let us buy the house thinking the fence was on our property?" "Buyer beware," was what he said. At that point Mark quietly said, "We have an initial contract which states that the fence was to be built on our property. Now we will not buy the house and apparently we will have to sue the sellers for breach of contract." Agent came unglued. No, no, no let's not get the sellers involved he begged. (Sellers were not present. They are to sign at 4 pm today.) This little misunderstanding was all his fault. What could he do to make it right?
We got three thousand dollars off the price of the house. We signed. That damn fence was never ours or ever going to be ours. The sellers had always intended to put up their fence on their property. The agent bald faced lied to us. FOR NO GOOD REASON. We made it obvious from the beginning we wanted the house. Fence or no fence. Also turns out there are no keys for any of the door locks. I asked a couple of weeks ago why the house was never locked. He told me because the sellers were always going in and out. Today I asked for the keys. He then said there were none. I asked why he hadn't told me that weeks ago. He just looked down at his shoes.
This guy used to be the chief of police in our little town.
Was a long morning. We have a house. I am going out and purchase locks just as soon as I finish typing. I hope soon to be excited. Right now I just want to sit down and cry. Change is hard, and good things are worth fighting for. And, shock of all shocks, I am capable of fighting. First the dog and now the house.
Take care of yourselves. Love Bea
1 comment:
I'm so happy for you and Mark. We had a house in VT that had no keys either. The only time we ever locked the house was when we were going out of town for a few days. When we sold it, the new owners wanted keys and we said there were none but that a skelton key worked quite well. I don't know if that info pleased them or not. Probably if it was a rental you'd want to change the locks anyway. I hope your move will go smoothly. Surely there must be someone in your church who can help. We once used a 15 yr. old boy to help us move and he was great - lots of energy. Later that summer he and I painted that big 13 room house on the outside. At any rate, don't sweat the small stuff - it all works out in the end. Love, Marti
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