When you bought your home, did you allow the previous owners to leave items in the basement, garage or attic of the home?
When a buyer purchases a property in the Greater Hartford area, it’s supposed to be left in “broom clean condition” by the closing. That means the previous owners shouldn’t leave old paint cans, cleaning products or a host of other things behind.
Often you’ll see a seller ask a buyer if it’s okay to leave random “stuff” that they feel the buyer may find useful in the future. Leftover paint is the most common request because sellers believe buyers may want the paint to do touch ups once all of the wall hangings are removed. Some buyers will be okay with the old paint staying, while others will tell the sellers “no thanks” and ask that it be thrown away. Usually it depends on the color of the paint and whether or not the buyer plans on painting right away. Truthfully, most sellers want to leave the paint because it’s a pain in the butt to dispose of properly.
And what happens when you, the buyer, eventually become the seller of the house? Well, the next buyer is going to expect you to clean everything out. I’ve run out of fingers counting the number of times I’ve heard a seller client say “But the person I bought the house from left this for me, why can’t I just leave it for the new buyer…” The leftover mess from the previous seller now becomes your problem because you never dealt with it, or probably used any of it.
If you’re a buyer, think long and hard about the items if a seller asks you if they can leave some things with the home. You’re going to be responsible to remove it in the future, so if it really isn’t of any value to you and you don’t see yourself ever using it, make sure you have the seller take it away before the closing. Otherwise it will become your problem a few years down the line before the closing of your sale.
As you know, my homebuying situation was a little out of the ordinary with the owner being out of state. A lot of stuff, mainly from a tenant, was left behind. I inherited paint (lots and lots of white paint), playing cards, and small plastic combs, to name just a few of the intriguing items. It was more amusing than a nuisance to me. I could see something like this easily driving someone else over the edge if they have a lot more stuff than I do.
I don’t plan to sell, but I’m hoping that I would have the sense to ask a potential buyer if she would want leftover paint. I know it’s a business transaction, but that shouldn’t mean the process can’t be human and respectful of others.
House we bought before last, I specificied I wanted all the paint removed from the basement. They left it anyway in their rush to get to west hartford I guess, and we didn’t figure it out until after closing because we didn’t do a walk through thoroughly enough (if we even did one) – assuming they’d do as requested. They also left piles of cat poop that had accumulated, and petrified, over the years in the basement too, in dark corners. So we got rid of all that. Now I do more thorough walk through. Lesson learned.
I’ve had a few situations where my seller clients have left the state and didn’t do a thorough job doing the clean out. One time I removed 20 cans of paint from a basement and then had to dispose of it. Not fun.
I try to get buyers to do their final walk through the day before the closing, if possible. If there is an issue, at least there is still time to address it before the closing.
Oh! The cat poop reminded me that there WAS one thing I did not want left behind which was — a headless bird in the basement. I somehow suppressed my total freakout over that.
I had forgotten about the headless bird. Yesterday I was on a home inspection and there were dead mice in the basement. Hopefully those will be gone by the closing. We’ll ask for those to be removed…