jukster
Jul 24th, 2007, 02:06 PM
Hi,
We bought an older house in Toronto (as is); however the previous owner had a lot of junk inside the house and around the property and so when we signed the papers, our real estate agent put in a clause so that the owner had to remove at his expense all items in and around the property on or before the closing date as well as maintain the lawn and remove any loose branches. Also the agent asked us to make sure we communicate with our lawyer to ensure there is sufficient holdback so that in case the owner does not respect the condition we can use part or all of the holdback money to pay for services to have the items which belonged to him removed from the property.
Before the sale I phoned our lawyer many times to understand better how the holdback process works and I was told that if on the day of the move the junk is still there, I was to phone him and he would communicate this with the seller's lawyer.
Few days before we were supposed to move I asked to see the property again since I wanted to see if the seller was cleaning it up or not.....I guess he had read my mind and so two days before closing he started cleaning up.
However, on the day of closing we found still lots of junk in the house and around the property, also he had removed some rose bushes from the front and left us some dead squirrels and birds in the backyard (he had removed some old dog kennels and I assume those dead animals were there and his dogs scattered them across the backyard).
Anyway, I called our lawyer, left a message explaining what we had found, took pictures to ensure we have proof of this and waited for the lawyer to give me the go-ahead (as in assure me there is a holdback) to have someone come in and remove all this junk. Next day he left me a voice mail (which I still have saved on my phone) and told me to go ahead and pay for this service as I will be reimbursed with money held by the seller's lawyer. And so we ended up paying $508 from our pockets and sent the receipt to our lawyer. On the Monday after this, our lawyer calls saying there was no holdback and saying that the previous owner would contact us to reimburse us. (rrrrrrrright!!!!) of course that never happened.
Now our lawyer says we have two options; one to sue the seller in small claims court and the other for him to make a complaint with law society of the other lawyer not holding back any amount. However, the other lawyer apparently had never specifically agreed to hold back any money
SO, I don't want to waste my time or energy in small claims court, but in the same time I think someone should pay for all this, whether it's the seller's lawyer or ours or the seller.....the condition on the purchase agreement is written very clearly black on white that all these items were supposed to have been removed. Also, I should mention that the seller never paid in full his portion of the property taxes and now I have to wait for the title insurance to pay his portion (about $400) meanwhile incurring interest for that amount.
And to make matters worse, our lawyer does not really return my messages either voice mail or email. I'm tempted to contact the seller and tell him that I'm willing to take him to court just to get him to pay me back.
Any advice?
Thanks.
We bought an older house in Toronto (as is); however the previous owner had a lot of junk inside the house and around the property and so when we signed the papers, our real estate agent put in a clause so that the owner had to remove at his expense all items in and around the property on or before the closing date as well as maintain the lawn and remove any loose branches. Also the agent asked us to make sure we communicate with our lawyer to ensure there is sufficient holdback so that in case the owner does not respect the condition we can use part or all of the holdback money to pay for services to have the items which belonged to him removed from the property.
Before the sale I phoned our lawyer many times to understand better how the holdback process works and I was told that if on the day of the move the junk is still there, I was to phone him and he would communicate this with the seller's lawyer.
Few days before we were supposed to move I asked to see the property again since I wanted to see if the seller was cleaning it up or not.....I guess he had read my mind and so two days before closing he started cleaning up.
However, on the day of closing we found still lots of junk in the house and around the property, also he had removed some rose bushes from the front and left us some dead squirrels and birds in the backyard (he had removed some old dog kennels and I assume those dead animals were there and his dogs scattered them across the backyard).
Anyway, I called our lawyer, left a message explaining what we had found, took pictures to ensure we have proof of this and waited for the lawyer to give me the go-ahead (as in assure me there is a holdback) to have someone come in and remove all this junk. Next day he left me a voice mail (which I still have saved on my phone) and told me to go ahead and pay for this service as I will be reimbursed with money held by the seller's lawyer. And so we ended up paying $508 from our pockets and sent the receipt to our lawyer. On the Monday after this, our lawyer calls saying there was no holdback and saying that the previous owner would contact us to reimburse us. (rrrrrrrright!!!!) of course that never happened.
Now our lawyer says we have two options; one to sue the seller in small claims court and the other for him to make a complaint with law society of the other lawyer not holding back any amount. However, the other lawyer apparently had never specifically agreed to hold back any money
SO, I don't want to waste my time or energy in small claims court, but in the same time I think someone should pay for all this, whether it's the seller's lawyer or ours or the seller.....the condition on the purchase agreement is written very clearly black on white that all these items were supposed to have been removed. Also, I should mention that the seller never paid in full his portion of the property taxes and now I have to wait for the title insurance to pay his portion (about $400) meanwhile incurring interest for that amount.
And to make matters worse, our lawyer does not really return my messages either voice mail or email. I'm tempted to contact the seller and tell him that I'm willing to take him to court just to get him to pay me back.
Any advice?
Thanks.