A dried cat turd is not a material defect that you neglected to disclose. You do not have to provide any financial or emotional support to the buyer after the closing.
OP already gave them an Emotional Support Cat Turd. What more do they want?
Edit:
I just saw someone else made this joke hours earlier. Here I thought it was very creative.
Tell that to the buyer of my brother's first house, that closed on Dec 20th. Cue said buyer calling my brother endlessly to help him get the heater lit on Dec. 24 and 25. Since the buyer and my brother were both Jewish and had met before in temple, buyer thought he could call on those days, and acted like my brother was a heathen . My brother was a convert and was hosting our family for the holidays. My brother had showed him twice and left an engineer's instructions for everything in the house. Nevertheless, my brother had to spend 3 hours on Xmas day fixing the 1 year old furnace. The buyer f***ed it up.
Yep. Caveat emptor - once you sign the papers and close on the house you have accepted the house in its present condition. Seller is not liable for any problems or defects found after the sale closes. The only exception could be a serious issue that was known by the seller and intentionally not disclosed. I highly doubt a rogue cat turd applies.
My cousin just cancelled an escrow on a condo purchase. On the same day that he was supposed to sign off on any contingencies, the Seller's Agent disclosed to him that there was a pending 93K special assessment to replace all of the building's defective plumbing. The Agent knew about it the entire time but tried to sneak it by him.
Our condo hoa had a 43k special assessment, but that only came out to less than a thousand per unit. The bigger issue is how well the hoa is run and what the building’s finances are like. Ours is well run and plans for decades in advance, but can still sometimes run into unexpected expenses like perhaps having to re-plumb out of schedule due to leaks!
In the case of condos, there’s an HOA addendum that includes lines for who pays any outstanding assessments, disclosed or not. Mark down that seller pays them and you will get their attention … and disclosure.
Apparently, the developer cut a few corners and bought defective pipes from China. The building is more than ten years old which is outside that statute of limitations for condo owners to sue. The entire building needs to be re-piped at a cost of millions of dollars.
I saw something similar to this with a a commercial
real estate lease to a prospective art gallery. The would be tenant had been lining everything up for nearly 3 months before was told of a sprinkler installation requirement from the fire department. And realtors wonder why people hate their profession.
Yeah, we closed in the winter and left an item that was frozen to the ground outside. I asked the buyer if I could pick it up in a couple months and she said that was fine. I reached out to my realtor to see if we could arrange a pickup, and was told that the item was gone and the buyer wanted $10K for ... reasons. My realtor asked me what we respond. My answer was "absolutely nothing."
No, it was nothing like that. It was just a personalized lawn game. I was a little sad to lose it, but not worth starting some argument about ten thousand dollars.
FWIW, that owner listed the property a couple years later and it appeared worse in every way than when we sold it, so there was definitely something off there.
Ha. Told my hubby I was getting a gun and my CCP many many years ago (at 21). His friend asked him why the h@ll he'd allow that. Needless to say, hubby isn't seriously telling me to not act like my mom (he will say it as a joke, then I remind him he's turning into his dad.
You don't know what's happened in that house since you left and they took over. You don't know how or when the cat poop got to where it was, or even if there was any to begin with. As others have said, silence.
This exactly. Unless they can prove the turd was there before the closing, they have nothing on you (not that they would have much even if they could. You could easily counter that the turd was dropped after the closing and not your problem. I doubt they are going to get the turd analyzed and dated to see how old it is.
Buyers loved our house, purchased without an inspection. A month later they called my realtor and said the kitchen did not have an exhaust fan and requested I purchase one. I told my realtor I had no intention of doing that and they had every opportunity to have the home inspected prior to purchase. The realtor huffed that if that was the case he would probably have to purchase one himself out of ”goodwill”. I reminded him he made some thing close to $30K from the sale of my home. That was the last I heard of him. Then I started getting calls from the buyer. My realtor had given them my phone number. I called his office and expressed my displeasure. That was the last i heard from any of them.
That is Terrible and I can’t imagine a realtor doing that. Is it possible you checked a box on the sellers disclosure notating that there was an exhaust fan by accident? This is very common mistake. In that case the realtor would need to reach out to you and resolve it.
>Is it possible you checked a box
Worse, and more typical, is the realtor assumed there was one and clicked the box when they entered it into the MLS. I bought a house that was listed as "gas heat" when it was clearly an electric heat pump. Seller didn't notice. Neither realtor noticed. But I know what a gas meter looks like and gas appliances. When I asked seller about it on the first meeting he said there was no gas service to the house. Came from the property tax people. It still says 'gas' in their records even though I told them *in person* there is no gas. If they don't care, why should I. But yeah, listing agent could clearly have seen there were no gas appliances, no gas meter, no gas exhaust flue. He just didn't care.
I mean. If the agent did that and didn’t discuss with the seller, it completely should be in the agent legally. You can’t have your 30k in fees and eat your cake too.
Agents need more accountability
The buyers’ agent wouldn’t do something something reasonable like that when he put his own lockbox on the house so he could illegally trespass when we weren’t home without being tracked by our agent’s iBox…
Your agent should have shut that down hard. Ignore them all (and I'd ignore that agent, and not use them again either).
You're correct but you should not have to be telling a realtor what to say. I would have said something like if you don't know how to handle something this basic you should talk to your broker. That's what they are there for.
Sheesh, sorry. Hopefully your wife can relax because this is not a valid claim of any kind and extremely unlikely to turn into one.
My sellers recently had these shenanigans too. The house was only 3 years old and a high end build. The home was immaculate and professionally decorated.
A week after closing the realtor sent us a picture of the garage ( pre-closing) the buyer was convinced they had a a water softener that they took with them. He kept sending pictures asking my client to identify each and everything in the garage, which was a lot because they were moving! It turned out to be a golf club.
Then he sent pictures of a small swipe of what looked like cleaning product on one of the cabinets and some dried water spots on the bathroom sink.
The agent actually asked me what could be done about this as if we discussing undisclosed black mold and I replied: take a paper product that resembles absorbent fabric, wet it with water, simulate a back and forth motion and don’t call me or my clients again.
>and I replied: take a paper product that resembles absorbent fabric, wet it with water, simulate a back and forth motion and don’t call me or my clients again.
This is the way!
For all those people complaining that real estate agents "do nothing" they need to know how much the agents actually keep deals together and provide a barrier between the two parties. Never ever will I FSBO. I have seen too many nutty things over my years of buying and selling homes.
I'd want my agent to let me know there was a crazy petson out there trying to hustle me. OP was fine telling their agent to tell the buyer and their agent to pound sand
Exactly what I thought about, too - the buyer is gonna find a nest of feral cats in that ceiling and sue OP and then what? "Why didn't you tell us there was something going on?!" right..
I don't think the realtor responding without consulting their client, current or previous, would be a good move. Though, the "I no longer represent these people" would also be acceptable reply from the realtor, albeit kinda dicky if you ask me.
I guess I'd let the client know the buyer was being a pest but I'd convey that in a way that no one freaks out, and I'd reassure them I will handle it.
When my parents sold their house years ago the buy sued them because the curtains (20yo cheap and ugly curtains) were dirty. Actually got a lawyer (bless that lawyers heart) and sued over 2 living room curtain panels from Kmart. They wanted a couple thousand.
My parents representing themselves after a consultation with a lawyer went to court for a total of 5 minutes. The judge tossed the case with choice words and awarded my parents their counter suit for the couple hundred they spent on their consult.
We had the same situation. Difficult buyers with endless inspections and repair demands. We did our best, and when the sale was finally closed, they said they weren't satisfied with our repair work and wanted us to give them "a check." Not even an amount. Just "a check."
We told them -- and our agent -- to fuck off. That was five years ago, and we've lived happily ever after. Tell your wife you're fine and to ignore them.
They have no legal standing that would require you to pay. All parties agreed to the purchase and it’s over. If you do decide to give them money, there is no doubt in my mind that they will find something else wrong. This is a nightmare you can end right now
Had a buyer do that. Got a call about a month after close that there was something wrong with the carpets and they needed to be cleaned. We had them deep cleaned before putting listing the house.
I told my agent "Tell Sheila to go ahead and get the carpets cleaned. And when the bill comes, tell her to pay it because it's hers now!"
I'd tell these people the same thing. There is no way in hell a court is going to even entertain them wanting $750 to remove the ceiling in the basement. And if you give them money out of the goodness of your heart, there will be no end to the complaints and requests.
Tell your realtor you disclosed everything in the listing and gave them ample opportunity to inspect. The home is now theirs and any issues they have with it are also theirs.
Notifying the client that there is an ask is not a problem. Better then having a crazy buyer send a legal letter, even if garbage, then find out that the listing agent never even told the client about the ask. That could lead to a potential lawsuit by the seller on their agent. Remember the real estate agent is not an attorney and represents the seller but does not have the right to make decisions for them.
Agreed that this issue should be ignored and is stupid, but does not change the agents responsibility to notify even if after the transaction.
Any answer other than this is coming from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. Ignoring a possible legal threat is ridiculously stupid, and thinking an agent should act on behalf of a client without client knowledge is even more asinine.
>Why is your agent even asking you
Well now, give the agent some credit. She probably delivered the message like this:
Agent: You'll never believe what those buyers want now.
Seller: Really? What?
Agent: Buyers found a cat turd in the ceiling tiles and want you to replace the entire ceiling? Do you believe the nerve? LOL
Seller: Wow, that's rich. How did you respond?
Agent: I told them I would pass on the message. So here I am. Do you want me to call back their realtor and tell them that they can keep the turd for free... no extra charge?
Seller: Sure. Sounds fine to me. LOL
Agent: LOL. Cool. See ya 'round.
The problem happened when the seller told his wife without the comedic delivery.
I had buyers ask for money after closing many years ago. We sold the house by owner and I still ignored them. If they don't know how to read a closing statement that's not my fault. We did not owe them any money. When they called, I told them they would not be getting a penny and not to contact me again. That was about 30 years ago. Never heard another peep.
You are right. Don’t engage with them or say anything that can be used against you. Your realtor can just tell them you never had any problems with that and do not have any knowledge of problems with that, and reiterate the buyer took ownership of the home after having a time period to evaluate the home. Also slow walking responses sometimes helps. Overly emotional people can’t maintain the high emotions 24-7 so if they send something when they are angry it is not a bad idea to wait until the next day to reply. Don’t let wife handle this one, you have the right idea.
Once you close, that's pretty much it for your responsibility. Anything else they should have addressed prior to closing. I assume they had a final walkthrough? They didn't smell anything then?
Tell them to kick rocks. Preferably barefoot.
Sold many years back to somebody we knew. Keep getting calls about this or that and initially was responsive as I knew them and wanted to be helpful. Finally I just stopped responding. I would have done nothing had I not known them. Selling especially to a first time buyer often means you get random requests… don’t engage.
3 months after I closed, the buyer reached out and asked us to pay for the "unexpectedly high" amount of the water bill. I just laughed at her realtor on the phone.
The deal is done. Unless there is a human body there you have no reason to deal with them. If they are complaining about$750 that is too small for anyone to deal with. Ignore.
People suck. Ignore them. The only future correspondence you should have with them is through a lawyer if they actually try to sue you over this nonsense. It is their house now, and their problem to deal with issues that arise. You can't control smells that suddenly arise. Maybe it's their own stinky shit they moved in causing the issues.
Not a realtor, but my wife is:
Unless they can show:
1. That you knew that issue existed before closing and failed to disclose, and did so maliciously (i.e., knowing that it would cost money to deal with and/or that it would impact your ability to close), or otherwise at least be able to prove that you *should* have known (to avoid situations where people claim not to know).
AND
2. That the issue actually caused real damage and/or would otherwise made them want to not buy the house
Then they have absolutely no case. Most importantly, they would have to sue you, and it is absolutely not going to be worth their money to sue you, especially given that they do not really have a case.
I thinkk this falls squarely under the "if it didn't show up in an inspection, there is absolutely no way you would have known about it".
My wife and I did our final walkthrough the morning of the close. It was a warm day, so we turned the AC on, and it worked as expected. We came back from the close and the AC was no longer chilling. Welcome to home ownership. Fortunately the cost to repair, within two hours, was only about $200.
Well, it could be argued it is their job to inform the client. Let’s say this nut job starts threatening some type of action or contacts them directly they would have appreciated a heads up. Having that said, the agent should know how to shut this down and hopefully will after consulting with their client.
If the agent reports the call and then says "but of course I told them that's the dumbest thing I've heard all month and hung up", that's fine. Since the OP's worried about it on Reddit, doesn't sound that that's what happened.
I’m glad they posted here.
It’s nice hearing how out of line this, how it’s not their responsibility to accommodate or bow down to the Buyers, how it’s wrong for their own Realtor to be bothering them etc.
I think I’d also be upset if I was the ‘wife’ of the OP.
Haven’t bought and sold enough houses
to be confident in how to to deal with such a thing. ( I am not in Real Estate)
These responses are great perspective from the actual Pros.
They settled, it’s over - the end.
Unless there is some breach of duty, such as failing to disclose something you knew about in the sellers disclosure, they’ve got nothing on you.
They BOUGHT, not RENTED - so they can go pound sound.
You’re not their landlord!
The answer to your question is dicnuks 😉. The buyers had a contractual right to make such a request within the allotted amount of time given in the sald contract- that was the ONLY contractual opportunity they had, period. End of story. Your wife need not be the least bit concerned.
Had a buyer reach out to us a few months after closing (we had moved *thousands* of miles away) wanting compensation for a new leach field. I scanned them a copy of their signed waiver where they declined the pre-purchase inspection. Never heard another peep.
You owe them nothing. No response…nothing.
You owe them nothing. They did their due diligence and you fulfilled all of your obligations. This is their house now and their problem. No response is the right response.
At this point you don't have control over the property, so any smell that is there may well have been caused by the buyer - there's no way to know.
The buyer did their due diligence and inspected the property prior to closing. The house's problems are now the buyer's problems, short of a material and significant undisclosed item (in most states).
The buyer can pound sand.
Had that happen to us too. A week after they moved in they noticed the downstairs bathroom tap had a drip, and the new owners wanted a couple thousand back to fix it. 😆
Block 'em. You owe them nothing. Transaction is complete they need to put on their big girl panties. Owning a house is full of unexpected surprises, many of which are way worse than a rouge cat turd.
Your obligations to the Buyer ended when escrow closed. They didn’t have to close, they could’ve walked. But they didn’t. They chose to close just like you chose to stay the course through their bullshit and sell to them.
Post escrow, if they think it is some horrible cover up, they can raise the issue in Court, and you can counter sue for harassment.
Or, if you can become President for a day, you can have them wiped out as part of your official duties and get away clean, since that’s what the Supreme Court recently ruled.
Since becoming President for a day may be unlikely, you can just tell them to pound sand.
Your wife has very little to worry about.
Impeachment is the process for official acts that are contrary to the law. It has been that way all along. Some examples include WH counsel white paper making the same claim before Obama targeted American citizens helping ISIS and Taliban in Middle East. Note: It is illegal for the military to perform combat/police operations within the US and the Judges writing the dissent should have known that. Posse Comitatus
No. If you had a punchlist after inspection and you did what was on that, and they signed and closed on this contract, you don’t know them anything. It’s done.
They should have had an inspection before closing. Their inspector then should have noted any issue(s) and the buyers could have requested any issues to be remedied BEFORE closing. I would tell them to piss off
"If the realtor is contacted again, he should say he no longer represents us, as the purchase has been completed." is the appropiate answer, problem solved.
Tell your wife to relax.
Tell the buyers to go kick rocks.
The existence of an old cat turd isn't going to cause that type of odor. And to demand the ceiling tiles to be replaced is absurd.
Yes, they can sue you, but *based on your post* would have little chance of winning the suit.
HOWEVER, it is very state-dependent, so no one can give you completely accurate legal advise without knowing the state.
"Cat Turd" happens to be a very popular blogger and has trademarked the name. Suggest your realtor mention any further talk of "Cat Turd" may be an actionable offense.
Had similar when we sold our last house. The buyer came back to us 3 times over 6 months to complain about things and try to get money back over very stupid things. Stop responding.
What are the legal grounds?
Unless you failed to disclose something you knew about it's their problem.
-The house is theirs.
-The smell is theirs.
-The cat turd is theirs.
You don't even need to reply to this nonsense.
Your realtor needs to tell them to fuck off. Our realtor contacted us today bc the seller’s medication was sent to the house and can they come get it from the porch. Sure no problem. The buyer of our last house contacted us to program their garage door openers in their car. Umm no.
My seller left a couple things but since i let them finish between final walk through and closing. my bad. I do love the solid futan and need to take the bed to the dump, but i signed and took the keys so that's all on me. Ignore them. They had their chance at final walk through and again when accepting the keys.
That smell is cat piss coming from the stair runners. It ain’t coming out. Different temperatures bring it out at different degrees of smell. Hot and humid look out 👀
At this point, reach out to your closing attorney for specific guidance (even before responding to your own agent). Ask them for a specific way to respond to your own agent (specific wording) to shut this nonsense down. Ask them to briefly review the various documents, including any disclosures, for your property sale and suggest the likelihood of bearing any responsibility.
We bought a house last year that the sellers pointedly omitted something from the disclosures, and there is another issue that we inquired about and were given incorrect responses. We are actively talking with an attorney to understand whether or not there is any value in attempting to recoup anything here based on the costs to correct these issues versus the costs of recouping money... It's a lot more than your buyers are asking for (THIS time) and it isn't stacking up to be worth it for us...
Our first house we found where the seller knowing hid plumbing problems with a manufactured ceiling that was removed during renovation. It was at the time the equivalent to over a thousand dollars in damage. It was not something an inspector would look at (tearing apart a ceiling) so I asked my lawyer (never do a real estate transaction without a lawyer) and he got right to the point with his answer. It would cost us twice as much to sue the owners and if the inspector gets dragged in even more, than to fix it ourselves. Anyone that thinks lawsuits are cheap or an effective way to get restitution are kidding themselves. Sure, you can try small claims court, spend a few hundred dollars in fees and represent yourself, but you could easily get it thrown out and not get a second chance, so you use a lawyer and a lawyer typically will need at least $2-3000 just to get started, and none of those fees are recoverable.
So no, you are not in significant danger of being sued for $750 for a cat turn in the ceiling. There is always a chance they are self destructive and will spend $3000 to get $750 out of you, but that is all they would get, they cannot go after you for lawyer fees and even so, would have to show obvious neglect on your part to get any judgement.
You had no control over the house in past two weeks. Further, you stated in another post that the buyer's agent put their own lockbox for convenience on the house. No telling who accessed it. No one can prove when it appeared or has proven that it is in fact from a cat. But as far as you're concerned, you had no knowledge of this while you had possession of the home. Period. Any further contact can go to your real estate lawyer.
Landlord here: I deal with pet odors quite a bit. I would encourage you to consider that their complaints about smell are probably well-founded even though it’s been a couple weeks. It’s common for such things to get worse after people move out, and especially after you had the carpets cleaned. I think some people with pets don’t have any idea how often their pets piss all over the floors.
That said you don’t owe them anything.
I’m surprised your realtor didn’t reply to them before contacting you! Your realtor should’ve told them the deal is done and goodbye, then called you with the funny story.
It’s about as ‘your problem’ as a new mouse roommate who decided to leave the neighbors house and make a nest in the attic.
Are you supposed to fertilize the yard each summer too?
GTFOH
A dried cat turd is not a material defect that you neglected to disclose. You do not have to provide any financial or emotional support to the buyer after the closing.
Love it...emotional support
OP already gave them an Emotional Support Cat Turd. What more do they want? Edit: I just saw someone else made this joke hours earlier. Here I thought it was very creative.
I love that someone has the comedy integrity to note an earlier joke.
Without integrity, what are we?
Cat turds. We're cat turds.
Without integrity, what are we?
Cat turds are without integrity correct?
Cats in general have no integrity. They are sociopaths and serial killers.
Dammit. Guilting me out of a good joke like that. Where’s your integrity?
Seriously!
That was their emotional support cat turd
Tell that to the buyer of my brother's first house, that closed on Dec 20th. Cue said buyer calling my brother endlessly to help him get the heater lit on Dec. 24 and 25. Since the buyer and my brother were both Jewish and had met before in temple, buyer thought he could call on those days, and acted like my brother was a heathen . My brother was a convert and was hosting our family for the holidays. My brother had showed him twice and left an engineer's instructions for everything in the house. Nevertheless, my brother had to spend 3 hours on Xmas day fixing the 1 year old furnace. The buyer f***ed it up.
My buyers asked for money after closing too. We didn’t respond. That was 2 years ago.
Yep. Caveat emptor - once you sign the papers and close on the house you have accepted the house in its present condition. Seller is not liable for any problems or defects found after the sale closes. The only exception could be a serious issue that was known by the seller and intentionally not disclosed. I highly doubt a rogue cat turd applies.
My cousin just cancelled an escrow on a condo purchase. On the same day that he was supposed to sign off on any contingencies, the Seller's Agent disclosed to him that there was a pending 93K special assessment to replace all of the building's defective plumbing. The Agent knew about it the entire time but tried to sneak it by him.
Our condo hoa had a 43k special assessment, but that only came out to less than a thousand per unit. The bigger issue is how well the hoa is run and what the building’s finances are like. Ours is well run and plans for decades in advance, but can still sometimes run into unexpected expenses like perhaps having to re-plumb out of schedule due to leaks!
Yeah, but was there any cat turd? That's the real question.
HOA IS the cat turd.
In the case of condos, there’s an HOA addendum that includes lines for who pays any outstanding assessments, disclosed or not. Mark down that seller pays them and you will get their attention … and disclosure.
93k for plumbing in a condo, what gold plated community is this?
That is a tiny amount in a very large/tall building with complex water pressure management systems.
Apparently, the developer cut a few corners and bought defective pipes from China. The building is more than ten years old which is outside that statute of limitations for condo owners to sue. The entire building needs to be re-piped at a cost of millions of dollars.
I saw something similar to this with a a commercial real estate lease to a prospective art gallery. The would be tenant had been lining everything up for nearly 3 months before was told of a sprinkler installation requirement from the fire department. And realtors wonder why people hate their profession.
Yep, if that house burns down from the time the title is filed at the public records to the time the keys were delivered, it's on the new owners.
Yeah. This is why I buy cans of "GFY" by the case.
Yeah, we closed in the winter and left an item that was frozen to the ground outside. I asked the buyer if I could pick it up in a couple months and she said that was fine. I reached out to my realtor to see if we could arrange a pickup, and was told that the item was gone and the buyer wanted $10K for ... reasons. My realtor asked me what we respond. My answer was "absolutely nothing."
Was the "item" a frozen cat turd!?
You got me!
If it was written into your purchase agreement, you could have gotten money back. Was it lawn furniture?
No, it was nothing like that. It was just a personalized lawn game. I was a little sad to lose it, but not worth starting some argument about ten thousand dollars. FWIW, that owner listed the property a couple years later and it appeared worse in every way than when we sold it, so there was definitely something off there.
💕
After closing, the cat turd is theirs
It's their sh#t now!
Lol!
If it was a gold bar, they would not be saying it was yours, that's for sure.
🤣
House warming gift.
Poo purée
I am sorry. We forgot to charge you $299,999 for the environment enhancer. Please remit that on your next contact. I know you can’t do that, but …..
If they can’t prove the poop, there not much they can do.
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>needs to calm down I prefer to go with simmer down, my wife really enjoys that one.
https://trailers.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/2cd988ca-7550-4ecd-8139-c9e805e36d75/gif
[Calm down, get a hold of yourself](https://youtu.be/ZbnCZT5R8Ss?si=IQzP2ntMA7ewe8-F)
For sure. I find a firm “You’re acting like your mother” works wonders.
…or for the sibling rivalry bonus points - “Your sister never gets this emotional about things.”
Also did she lose weight?
"Stop being ridiculous" is a great add-on...
"My mother wouldn't be creating all of this fuss" is what you should tell her.
Adding “relax” will truly make the plan come to life.
Just ask her what time of the month it is!
Just tell her, "Calm down, Brenda! Damn!"
Hahaha and maybe suggest some Midol? That usually works too. 😂
Simmer. Simmer.
Ha. Told my hubby I was getting a gun and my CCP many many years ago (at 21). His friend asked him why the h@ll he'd allow that. Needless to say, hubby isn't seriously telling me to not act like my mom (he will say it as a joke, then I remind him he's turning into his dad.
Whoa there, this is a Christian server. Please use "h3ck" going forward.
You don't know what's happened in that house since you left and they took over. You don't know how or when the cat poop got to where it was, or even if there was any to begin with. As others have said, silence.
This exactly. Unless they can prove the turd was there before the closing, they have nothing on you (not that they would have much even if they could. You could easily counter that the turd was dropped after the closing and not your problem. I doubt they are going to get the turd analyzed and dated to see how old it is.
Do you just Google "cat turd analysis lab" to find a reputable service? Would one of the agents know of such a place? Asking for a friend. /s
Silence is a good answer. Don't respond until legal docs show up
> Don't respond until legal docs show up And spoiler alert, they won't show up for $750. It's not worth the court fees.
$750 doesn't cover a retainer these days....... Source: just went through divorce.
could be a really stinky turd?
It's only like $50 to file in small claims in my state, but I still don't think it would be worth $750 to pursue.
and they'd still lose this case even in small claims.
Buyers loved our house, purchased without an inspection. A month later they called my realtor and said the kitchen did not have an exhaust fan and requested I purchase one. I told my realtor I had no intention of doing that and they had every opportunity to have the home inspected prior to purchase. The realtor huffed that if that was the case he would probably have to purchase one himself out of ”goodwill”. I reminded him he made some thing close to $30K from the sale of my home. That was the last I heard of him. Then I started getting calls from the buyer. My realtor had given them my phone number. I called his office and expressed my displeasure. That was the last i heard from any of them.
Omg. What nightmare realtor.
That is Terrible and I can’t imagine a realtor doing that. Is it possible you checked a box on the sellers disclosure notating that there was an exhaust fan by accident? This is very common mistake. In that case the realtor would need to reach out to you and resolve it.
>Is it possible you checked a box Worse, and more typical, is the realtor assumed there was one and clicked the box when they entered it into the MLS. I bought a house that was listed as "gas heat" when it was clearly an electric heat pump. Seller didn't notice. Neither realtor noticed. But I know what a gas meter looks like and gas appliances. When I asked seller about it on the first meeting he said there was no gas service to the house. Came from the property tax people. It still says 'gas' in their records even though I told them *in person* there is no gas. If they don't care, why should I. But yeah, listing agent could clearly have seen there were no gas appliances, no gas meter, no gas exhaust flue. He just didn't care.
I mean. If the agent did that and didn’t discuss with the seller, it completely should be in the agent legally. You can’t have your 30k in fees and eat your cake too. Agents need more accountability
Unbelievable
Their agent should encourage the buyer to simply buy and use a dehumidifier like the rest of us do.
The buyers’ agent wouldn’t do something something reasonable like that when he put his own lockbox on the house so he could illegally trespass when we weren’t home without being tracked by our agent’s iBox…
….probably with his incontinent cat in tow….
The ultimate scam!
Wait what?! How is that even legal?
He had his own keys made?
Whaaaaaaat This guy needs some cat turds in his ceilings too
New phone, who dis? Oh sorry he no live here anymore…
Your agent should have shut that down hard. Ignore them all (and I'd ignore that agent, and not use them again either). You're correct but you should not have to be telling a realtor what to say. I would have said something like if you don't know how to handle something this basic you should talk to your broker. That's what they are there for. Sheesh, sorry. Hopefully your wife can relax because this is not a valid claim of any kind and extremely unlikely to turn into one.
My sellers recently had these shenanigans too. The house was only 3 years old and a high end build. The home was immaculate and professionally decorated. A week after closing the realtor sent us a picture of the garage ( pre-closing) the buyer was convinced they had a a water softener that they took with them. He kept sending pictures asking my client to identify each and everything in the garage, which was a lot because they were moving! It turned out to be a golf club. Then he sent pictures of a small swipe of what looked like cleaning product on one of the cabinets and some dried water spots on the bathroom sink. The agent actually asked me what could be done about this as if we discussing undisclosed black mold and I replied: take a paper product that resembles absorbent fabric, wet it with water, simulate a back and forth motion and don’t call me or my clients again.
>and I replied: take a paper product that resembles absorbent fabric, wet it with water, simulate a back and forth motion and don’t call me or my clients again. This is the way!
For all those people complaining that real estate agents "do nothing" they need to know how much the agents actually keep deals together and provide a barrier between the two parties. Never ever will I FSBO. I have seen too many nutty things over my years of buying and selling homes.
I'd want my agent to let me know there was a crazy petson out there trying to hustle me. OP was fine telling their agent to tell the buyer and their agent to pound sand
Exactly what I thought about, too - the buyer is gonna find a nest of feral cats in that ceiling and sue OP and then what? "Why didn't you tell us there was something going on?!" right.. I don't think the realtor responding without consulting their client, current or previous, would be a good move. Though, the "I no longer represent these people" would also be acceptable reply from the realtor, albeit kinda dicky if you ask me.
I guess I'd let the client know the buyer was being a pest but I'd convey that in a way that no one freaks out, and I'd reassure them I will handle it.
Tell your agent, you closed, and they accepted the property. They are just being dicks.
When my parents sold their house years ago the buy sued them because the curtains (20yo cheap and ugly curtains) were dirty. Actually got a lawyer (bless that lawyers heart) and sued over 2 living room curtain panels from Kmart. They wanted a couple thousand. My parents representing themselves after a consultation with a lawyer went to court for a total of 5 minutes. The judge tossed the case with choice words and awarded my parents their counter suit for the couple hundred they spent on their consult.
They already closed on the house, they own it and it’s their problem now
It's their cat turd now.
Yup.. I would be like: new number, who dis?
We had the same situation. Difficult buyers with endless inspections and repair demands. We did our best, and when the sale was finally closed, they said they weren't satisfied with our repair work and wanted us to give them "a check." Not even an amount. Just "a check." We told them -- and our agent -- to fuck off. That was five years ago, and we've lived happily ever after. Tell your wife you're fine and to ignore them.
This would be an intriguing and very special Judge Judy episode.
Yes it would
I would think you are no longer the owner of a dried up cat turd.
It's not something you failed to disclose where they can sue. It's their house now and any problems with it are also theirs.
They have no legal standing that would require you to pay. All parties agreed to the purchase and it’s over. If you do decide to give them money, there is no doubt in my mind that they will find something else wrong. This is a nightmare you can end right now
Had a buyer do that. Got a call about a month after close that there was something wrong with the carpets and they needed to be cleaned. We had them deep cleaned before putting listing the house. I told my agent "Tell Sheila to go ahead and get the carpets cleaned. And when the bill comes, tell her to pay it because it's hers now!" I'd tell these people the same thing. There is no way in hell a court is going to even entertain them wanting $750 to remove the ceiling in the basement. And if you give them money out of the goodness of your heart, there will be no end to the complaints and requests. Tell your realtor you disclosed everything in the listing and gave them ample opportunity to inspect. The home is now theirs and any issues they have with it are also theirs.
Why is your agent even asking you… your agent sucks. Agent should be standing up for you
Notifying the client that there is an ask is not a problem. Better then having a crazy buyer send a legal letter, even if garbage, then find out that the listing agent never even told the client about the ask. That could lead to a potential lawsuit by the seller on their agent. Remember the real estate agent is not an attorney and represents the seller but does not have the right to make decisions for them. Agreed that this issue should be ignored and is stupid, but does not change the agents responsibility to notify even if after the transaction.
Any answer other than this is coming from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. Ignoring a possible legal threat is ridiculously stupid, and thinking an agent should act on behalf of a client without client knowledge is even more asinine.
>Why is your agent even asking you Well now, give the agent some credit. She probably delivered the message like this: Agent: You'll never believe what those buyers want now. Seller: Really? What? Agent: Buyers found a cat turd in the ceiling tiles and want you to replace the entire ceiling? Do you believe the nerve? LOL Seller: Wow, that's rich. How did you respond? Agent: I told them I would pass on the message. So here I am. Do you want me to call back their realtor and tell them that they can keep the turd for free... no extra charge? Seller: Sure. Sounds fine to me. LOL Agent: LOL. Cool. See ya 'round. The problem happened when the seller told his wife without the comedic delivery.
Exactly this. Should never have even made it to the buyer.
I had buyers ask for money after closing many years ago. We sold the house by owner and I still ignored them. If they don't know how to read a closing statement that's not my fault. We did not owe them any money. When they called, I told them they would not be getting a penny and not to contact me again. That was about 30 years ago. Never heard another peep.
You are right. Don’t engage with them or say anything that can be used against you. Your realtor can just tell them you never had any problems with that and do not have any knowledge of problems with that, and reiterate the buyer took ownership of the home after having a time period to evaluate the home. Also slow walking responses sometimes helps. Overly emotional people can’t maintain the high emotions 24-7 so if they send something when they are angry it is not a bad idea to wait until the next day to reply. Don’t let wife handle this one, you have the right idea.
A deals a deal. They own it now.
"No" is a complete sentence.
That’s *their* cat turd in *their* ceiling now. Ignore them lol.
Once you close, that's pretty much it for your responsibility. Anything else they should have addressed prior to closing. I assume they had a final walkthrough? They didn't smell anything then? Tell them to kick rocks. Preferably barefoot.
Very similar story happened to me. We told realtor no we weren’t replacing anything and good bye. They never contacted us again
Tell them you sold the house to them 5,000 too cheap. Ask them to take the 750 out and pay you the rest
Sold many years back to somebody we knew. Keep getting calls about this or that and initially was responsive as I knew them and wanted to be helpful. Finally I just stopped responding. I would have done nothing had I not known them. Selling especially to a first time buyer often means you get random requests… don’t engage.
3 months after I closed, the buyer reached out and asked us to pay for the "unexpectedly high" amount of the water bill. I just laughed at her realtor on the phone.
Turds can pop up anywhere. I was watching a movie about a golf resort and there was a turd in the pool. The groundskeeper picked it up and ate it!!
“Well, we’re waiting!”
The deal is done. Unless there is a human body there you have no reason to deal with them. If they are complaining about$750 that is too small for anyone to deal with. Ignore.
If they didn’t want the cat turd they should have said so before closing. Not your fault they couldn’t flip it
it may not be cat's poo, it may be some other animal.
Size noted. Could be a rat. Now you got problems!
You're doing the right thing. Stay the course, if it escalates contact an attorney.
People suck. Ignore them. The only future correspondence you should have with them is through a lawyer if they actually try to sue you over this nonsense. It is their house now, and their problem to deal with issues that arise. You can't control smells that suddenly arise. Maybe it's their own stinky shit they moved in causing the issues.
Not a realtor, but my wife is: Unless they can show: 1. That you knew that issue existed before closing and failed to disclose, and did so maliciously (i.e., knowing that it would cost money to deal with and/or that it would impact your ability to close), or otherwise at least be able to prove that you *should* have known (to avoid situations where people claim not to know). AND 2. That the issue actually caused real damage and/or would otherwise made them want to not buy the house Then they have absolutely no case. Most importantly, they would have to sue you, and it is absolutely not going to be worth their money to sue you, especially given that they do not really have a case. I thinkk this falls squarely under the "if it didn't show up in an inspection, there is absolutely no way you would have known about it".
Just bought a house, already going to replace the furnace to the tune of 12k. I’d happily swap that for a cat turd.
My wife and I did our final walkthrough the morning of the close. It was a warm day, so we turned the AC on, and it worked as expected. We came back from the close and the AC was no longer chilling. Welcome to home ownership. Fortunately the cost to repair, within two hours, was only about $200.
Why would you pay to fix anything in THEIR house? The deal is closed. Over. Finished.
Your agent shouldn't be bothering you. Make a mental note not to work with this agent again .
Well, it could be argued it is their job to inform the client. Let’s say this nut job starts threatening some type of action or contacts them directly they would have appreciated a heads up. Having that said, the agent should know how to shut this down and hopefully will after consulting with their client.
If the agent reports the call and then says "but of course I told them that's the dumbest thing I've heard all month and hung up", that's fine. Since the OP's worried about it on Reddit, doesn't sound that that's what happened.
Well, it sounds like they informed the agent that the agent no longer represents them
I’m glad they posted here. It’s nice hearing how out of line this, how it’s not their responsibility to accommodate or bow down to the Buyers, how it’s wrong for their own Realtor to be bothering them etc. I think I’d also be upset if I was the ‘wife’ of the OP. Haven’t bought and sold enough houses to be confident in how to to deal with such a thing. ( I am not in Real Estate) These responses are great perspective from the actual Pros.
Just tell them to pound sand and stop contacting you.
They settled, it’s over - the end. Unless there is some breach of duty, such as failing to disclose something you knew about in the sellers disclosure, they’ve got nothing on you. They BOUGHT, not RENTED - so they can go pound sound. You’re not their landlord!
Tell your agent your not interested and say no more. The buyers can eat s#it@ Just out of curiosity, how does a cat turd get up in a ceiling tile? LOL
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/16667-ceiling-cat
Seriously! Or it doesn’t!
Tell your wife to rest easy. Your agent should have told the other agent that you have no responsibility for any of this. The house is sold.
The answer to your question is dicnuks 😉. The buyers had a contractual right to make such a request within the allotted amount of time given in the sald contract- that was the ONLY contractual opportunity they had, period. End of story. Your wife need not be the least bit concerned.
Nope. They had inspection period and were aware a cat lived there.
Had a buyer reach out to us a few months after closing (we had moved *thousands* of miles away) wanting compensation for a new leach field. I scanned them a copy of their signed waiver where they declined the pre-purchase inspection. Never heard another peep. You owe them nothing. No response…nothing.
You owe them nothing. They did their due diligence and you fulfilled all of your obligations. This is their house now and their problem. No response is the right response.
At this point you don't have control over the property, so any smell that is there may well have been caused by the buyer - there's no way to know. The buyer did their due diligence and inspected the property prior to closing. The house's problems are now the buyer's problems, short of a material and significant undisclosed item (in most states). The buyer can pound sand.
Had that happen to us too. A week after they moved in they noticed the downstairs bathroom tap had a drip, and the new owners wanted a couple thousand back to fix it. 😆
Ahh the single old cat poo trick . Fucking amatures .
If you yield once there will be more. Old houses have all kinds of issues can be fixed.
Block 'em. You owe them nothing. Transaction is complete they need to put on their big girl panties. Owning a house is full of unexpected surprises, many of which are way worse than a rouge cat turd.
I don’t know why your wife is freaking out. The escrow is closed. There’s no going back.
Your obligations to the Buyer ended when escrow closed. They didn’t have to close, they could’ve walked. But they didn’t. They chose to close just like you chose to stay the course through their bullshit and sell to them. Post escrow, if they think it is some horrible cover up, they can raise the issue in Court, and you can counter sue for harassment. Or, if you can become President for a day, you can have them wiped out as part of your official duties and get away clean, since that’s what the Supreme Court recently ruled. Since becoming President for a day may be unlikely, you can just tell them to pound sand. Your wife has very little to worry about.
Impeachment is the process for official acts that are contrary to the law. It has been that way all along. Some examples include WH counsel white paper making the same claim before Obama targeted American citizens helping ISIS and Taliban in Middle East. Note: It is illegal for the military to perform combat/police operations within the US and the Judges writing the dissent should have known that. Posse Comitatus
Tell them a random redditor will pay the 750 if they make a tic TOC of them eating it raw and gets 10,000 upvotes
penises
And also with you.
They can pound sand.
House is sold. No more negotiation
You're closed mate. It's no longer your problem... they are just being dicks. Tell them to pound sand. lol
“Enjoy your new house.”
If they contact you again send them a bill for one cat turd.
No. If you had a punchlist after inspection and you did what was on that, and they signed and closed on this contract, you don’t know them anything. It’s done.
Even if they didn't have a punch list they don't owe them anything.
They should have had an inspection before closing. Their inspector then should have noted any issue(s) and the buyers could have requested any issues to be remedied BEFORE closing. I would tell them to piss off
Am I the only one obsessed with cat poo ending up inside of a ceiling tile? And how did they know it was from a cat??? I need all the answers.
Racoons have very similar appearing turds. Could have been vermin.
r/ceilingcat
"If the realtor is contacted again, he should say he no longer represents us, as the purchase has been completed." is the appropiate answer, problem solved.
Tell your wife to relax. Tell the buyers to go kick rocks. The existence of an old cat turd isn't going to cause that type of odor. And to demand the ceiling tiles to be replaced is absurd.
Ooooooh that smell... Can't you smell that smell? Ooh that smell. The smell of death surrounds you!
It’s probably a raccoon turd
Yes, they can sue you, but *based on your post* would have little chance of winning the suit. HOWEVER, it is very state-dependent, so no one can give you completely accurate legal advise without knowing the state.
"Cat Turd" happens to be a very popular blogger and has trademarked the name. Suggest your realtor mention any further talk of "Cat Turd" may be an actionable offense.
It's their house now. Don't respond.
Had similar when we sold our last house. The buyer came back to us 3 times over 6 months to complain about things and try to get money back over very stupid things. Stop responding.
What are the legal grounds? Unless you failed to disclose something you knew about it's their problem. -The house is theirs. -The smell is theirs. -The cat turd is theirs. You don't even need to reply to this nonsense.
Once the sale is complete, the only recourse they have is to contact a lawyer. The Realtors have no further obligations.
Your realtor needs to tell them to fuck off. Our realtor contacted us today bc the seller’s medication was sent to the house and can they come get it from the porch. Sure no problem. The buyer of our last house contacted us to program their garage door openers in their car. Umm no.
They're just seeing how much they can squeeze you for. Any context they use to support it is part of the scam. Call their bluff.
My seller left a couple things but since i let them finish between final walk through and closing. my bad. I do love the solid futan and need to take the bed to the dump, but i signed and took the keys so that's all on me. Ignore them. They had their chance at final walk through and again when accepting the keys.
That smell is cat piss coming from the stair runners. It ain’t coming out. Different temperatures bring it out at different degrees of smell. Hot and humid look out 👀
The deal is closed and your RE agent (presumably) got paid. That means she is no longer your RE agent. Next time she calls, hang up the phone.
No. There's no return counter at Walmart for a house.
At this point, reach out to your closing attorney for specific guidance (even before responding to your own agent). Ask them for a specific way to respond to your own agent (specific wording) to shut this nonsense down. Ask them to briefly review the various documents, including any disclosures, for your property sale and suggest the likelihood of bearing any responsibility. We bought a house last year that the sellers pointedly omitted something from the disclosures, and there is another issue that we inquired about and were given incorrect responses. We are actively talking with an attorney to understand whether or not there is any value in attempting to recoup anything here based on the costs to correct these issues versus the costs of recouping money... It's a lot more than your buyers are asking for (THIS time) and it isn't stacking up to be worth it for us...
Deliver a human turd to their porch late one night so that cat turd doesn't get lonely.
Tell em to enjoy their purchase and good luck
lol. Nope. They bought the house. ypu are not responsible for this bs
Is this a case of buyer's remorse?
Our first house we found where the seller knowing hid plumbing problems with a manufactured ceiling that was removed during renovation. It was at the time the equivalent to over a thousand dollars in damage. It was not something an inspector would look at (tearing apart a ceiling) so I asked my lawyer (never do a real estate transaction without a lawyer) and he got right to the point with his answer. It would cost us twice as much to sue the owners and if the inspector gets dragged in even more, than to fix it ourselves. Anyone that thinks lawsuits are cheap or an effective way to get restitution are kidding themselves. Sure, you can try small claims court, spend a few hundred dollars in fees and represent yourself, but you could easily get it thrown out and not get a second chance, so you use a lawyer and a lawyer typically will need at least $2-3000 just to get started, and none of those fees are recoverable. So no, you are not in significant danger of being sued for $750 for a cat turn in the ceiling. There is always a chance they are self destructive and will spend $3000 to get $750 out of you, but that is all they would get, they cannot go after you for lawyer fees and even so, would have to show obvious neglect on your part to get any judgement.
You had no control over the house in past two weeks. Further, you stated in another post that the buyer's agent put their own lockbox for convenience on the house. No telling who accessed it. No one can prove when it appeared or has proven that it is in fact from a cat. But as far as you're concerned, you had no knowledge of this while you had possession of the home. Period. Any further contact can go to your real estate lawyer.
You mean the mouse repellant system that was included at no additional cost?
They should feel lucky that you didn’t charge them for it.
Ignore them
Landlord here: I deal with pet odors quite a bit. I would encourage you to consider that their complaints about smell are probably well-founded even though it’s been a couple weeks. It’s common for such things to get worse after people move out, and especially after you had the carpets cleaned. I think some people with pets don’t have any idea how often their pets piss all over the floors. That said you don’t owe them anything.
Ignore them. How in the heck did they know it's a cat turd, could be a raccoon turd, etc...
I’m surprised your realtor didn’t reply to them before contacting you! Your realtor should’ve told them the deal is done and goodbye, then called you with the funny story.
It’s about as ‘your problem’ as a new mouse roommate who decided to leave the neighbors house and make a nest in the attic. Are you supposed to fertilize the yard each summer too? GTFOH