As a real estate attorney having practiced in New York since 1991, I’ve come across all sorts of situations but this was a first for me. Just before we went to close on behalf of a seller who decided to move down South a few months before the closing was to take place, we got a frantic call from the purchaser's attorney that his client had just completed a final walk through of the house before the closing only to find homeless people living in the house. What a surprise it was when we located our client in Alabama and told her that she had homeless people in her house. The plot thickened when we called the real estate broker who represented the seller and she told us that she was a little embarrassed because the so called "homeless people" in the house were actually clients of hers who had sold their home a week earlier. She thought she was doing a good deed to let them come into the house to take a shower. Well clearly this was a very long shower and no one was amused! The closing was rescheduled and the broker organized for the "homeless people" to vacate the house and move elsewhere.
It is important when you are selling a house and you have made arrangements to move elsewhere, that you have a responsible person looking after your financial asset, probably your largest financial asset while it is vacant. It is not enough to trust the real estate broker who you probably met three weeks before you listed the house to take care of things. I would suggest that you have a family member take care of it or you speak to your attorney about this issue. There are so many things that can go wrong with a property that you own if you are not there to take care of it. You need to make sure that the gas has been turned off and it will not be a bad idea to make sure the water is turned off at the mains. A friend or some other responsible party should check on the house at least twice a week to make sure that everything is okay. You should also check your insurance policy with respect to coverage if the property is left vacant. There have been cases where major damage has occurred in a property and the owners have placed a claim with the insurance company only to find out that the claim has been rejected due to the fact that the insurance policy was written with the expressed term that somebody is to live at the property at all times. An insurance policy for a property which is vacant is a different type of insurance policy so unless the policy that you have is specific to the situation you may find that you were sitting with a property with no insurance.
As a seasoned real estate lawyer, I urge my clients to sit down with me even before they sell their property in order that we can address all these issues before they place their property on the market. While this article addressed a specific issue that arose from a recent situation there are just so many issues that are not only applicable to residential real estate but also to applicable to commercial real estate. Finally, if you are purchasing a property, please make sure you inspect the property right before closing. You don't need any surprises after having handed over the monies at the closing.
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