Say, I’m sick of my damn house, and all the crap in it.
So, I list it, sell it, and then hand over the keys. I never mention the fact that it won’t be empty.
The buyer comes to move in, and it’s full of 30 years worth of crap.
Is that illegal? Breach of contract? Perfectly OK?
The sales contract usually covers this territory. In real-world situations, the new owners may or may not want the old washer and dryer left behind, for example, or they may specify that a particular cabinet in the basement should be included in the sales price.
I’m not sure exactly what happens in your scenario, but I think one possibility is that the cost of clearing out the house comes out of the purchase price (per the contract) and you get less money. Or the sale doesn’t go through until and unless conditions are met.
Usually there is a final walk through at or just before closing. I would think, but don’t know for sure, that unless otherwise stated, the house is presumed to be relatively empty.
When we bought our house some 35 years ago. The deal was struck in December with closing in May. The house was being rented at the time. When we were all set to move in, there was still tons of stuff in it including a ten gallon drum of alcohol. But prices had gone up so much in the 5 months we closed anyway. There was some really good stuff like an armoire we sold for several hundred dollars, but there was some real junk as well. Then there were miscellaneous strange things like a license to distribute controlled substances on the premises pinned to the semi-finished attic ceiling with the needle of an old hypodermic syringe and a ten gallon container of alcohol – and it wasn’t rubbing alcohol – really strange.
I would expect this is covered as a standard clause in any boilerplate real estate contract. Plus, if the cleanup job in onerous and obvious (I’m thinking of my parents’ home when the went into a care home) the buyer obviously would have seen the condition and said something about it. I assume if the real estate agent or seller says “all this crap will be gone” it becomes an implied part of the contract or figured into the price. I assume (hope?) the same would apply to serious damage too…
Simple single family dwelling real estate contracts I’ve seen usually stipulate a few things to protect the house (or rather, the buyer’s interest in it) during the process of closing, for example it is common that the seller is required to “maintain the house” which usually means running water, electric and gas turned on, and grounds maintained (so regular lawncare.) The other common stipulation is a disclaimer that any property left in the home by the seller, becomes property of the buyer, and that the home must be “cleaned and free of debris.” That’s a little vague, so it’s not impossible there might be a little junk left over, unless someone has literally left like rooms and rooms full of trash that would require an expensive professional junk-out, or days of work, minor failure to fully clean is usually just going to be a “deal with it” situation, because it isn’t meaningfully worth it in a real estate deal to fight over it. You can usually raise any last minute issues you have with the state of the house on the final walk through.
ISTR an episode of Forensic Files where a man was clearing out his house just before selling it when he discovered a metal barrel in the basement that had been left behind by the previous owner 30+ years later, which wound up containing the remains of the former owner’s lover that he had murdered.
I don’t expect to ever buy a home unless I win the lottery someday, but in the event that I do, I’m making sure the place is empty before I sign the papers.
“Broom clean” is standard language in real estate sales contracts to describe this condition.
Yeah, it’s all a negotiation between the buyer and the seller.
When I bought my first house, it was from a retired couple who were moving to Scottsdale and wanted to travel light, so they left me with much of their stuff. Which I agreed to and was fine with, because even though a lot of it was worthless and I threw it out, I saved thousands of dollars not having to buy a lawnmower, several other outdoor tools, washer, dryer, refrigerator and 2nd fridge in basement, TV (an old console, but it served me well for several years), etc.
When I sold my first house, the couple who bought it tried to have close to a thousand overly inflated dollars taken off the sale price after the appraiser found some minor stuff to fix, or they said I could leave the pool table in the basement. I said nope. I made the fixes myself for a tiny fraction of the value they wanted and took my table with me.
We sold my fathers house in this condition. To a place called ‘Ugly Houses’ I think. They specialize in flipping houses.
I was so tired of the mess and trying to keep it up, I just couldn’t do anymore.
It should all be in the contract.
In my very specific example, I bought a house that was supposed to be empty and, as I recall, “broom clean” as noted above. By coincidence, our seller was frankly, a lazy asshole that my wife knew professionally. He did not bother to read the sales agreement and he did not bother to empty the house. He said he thought we’d want all the things. Some of what was left behind was useful (some tools, extension cords, and a grill). Most of it was junk, including some of the ugliest paint ever applied to a wall, piles of chemicals like bug killer, horrifying Christmas decorations, ugly furniture. It was a parade of horribles. He told us we could have a yard sale. I wasn’t interested. It turns out, my new neighbors later told me that he had already held a yard sale and sold anything that had any real value so his suggestion was disingenuous at best.
We almost walked away from closing. My agent promised me she knew someone who would empty the house out the next day for a guaranteed $1,000. The seller couldn’t just knock a thousand off of the closing amount because it would have contradicted the representations to the financing company and the title insurer. The seller wrote a personal check to her and she contracted with the junk hauler who emptied it out in a few hours. I’m sure if the check bounced, my agent would have just eaten the cost.
It very obviously pained the seller to lose even a thousand dollars on a half million property that he had been given by an old lady I’m very certain he took advantage of. So he was also a cheap bastard.
When we bought the house before this on, on the day-before final walk through, there was a bunch of stuff left. The realtor just called some guy w/ a truck who came and cleared everything out. As I recall, she paid the cost - just $100 or so - out of her commission. (The sellers were getting divorced. The guy was living in the house alone, and had been a real pain in the ass.). The place was far from broom clean, but we wanted the house and just wanted the close to happen, so we dealt with cleaning and minor repairs ourself.
My kid just bought a house in Denver while living in LA. She did not do a final walkthrough, and the house was far from broom clean, some fixtures had been removed, etc. Probably ended up costing the $1-2k.
Bottomline, conduct a THOROUGH final walkthrough. If it is not satisfactory, do not close until it is. IMO, that would be the case if a hoarder’s house were not cleaned out. But if it is just the cost of hiring some deep cleaners and maybe a dumpster, I’d figure that was just an unfortunate added cost of getting into the house I wanted. My attitude is funny. In my everyday life, I pick up pennies on the sidewalk. But when buying a house, I find myself saying, “Can I just throw a thousand $ at this to make it go away?” 
Heh. We did the exact opposite when we sold my mom’s house this past fall. The only condition the buyer added was that we leave the pool table behind. It was my dad’s table that he bought when we first moved in in 1980, and was just about the only “indulgence” he ever really spent money on (a vast array of computers aside, which was more of a professional thing). No one else in the family had room for the table, and I was not looking forward to the hassle of moving it, so when they said they wanted it, we jumped at the chance to off load it.
When I bought my current house, there we some appliances explicitly included in the purchase price. We met the actual sellers for the first time at the title company doing the paperwork, at which point the sellers mentioned that there was some furniture in the basement that they would not like to move if we would want it (there was to be a short rent-back period, so we didn’t not actually take possession until the better part of a month later, so there was still some time to negotiate on the condition of the house upon delivery).
They were an older couple moving into a smaller place, and we were a younger couple with only an apartment’s worth of furniture to move in, so we came to a handshake agreement on that that was beneficial to both sides, but certainly it was something we would have to come to an agreement on. They couldn’t just say, “Surprise! Couches!” on the final walkthrough.
My wife and I bought a house in August and kinda-sorta had to go through this.
When we first looked at the house the house had been cleaned but some of the furniture had been left behind: the dining room table, some living room stuff, the outdoor furniture. They also left behind the washer, dryer, and refrigerator – all new. We decided that we wanted to put an offer in on the house and I specifically asked our realtor what would happen to the stuff left behind. He said that at 5pm on the day of closing the stuff becomes the legal pretty of the new owners. He also told us that, in this white-hot real estate market that any kind of language in the contract that puts the onus of cleaning out the house on the previous owner will usually be grounds for the owner to move on to the next offer – there’ll almost always be someone willing to purchase it “as is” (we were those people).
Our bid was accepted and between the offer being accepted and closing the previous owner came and removed much of the stuff but, interestingly, left the appliances and the dining room table. They also left a freestanding basketball hoop in the driveway. After closing we double checked with our realtor who confirmed that those items were ours. We gave away the washer and dryer, took the table and a few boxes of miscellaneous junk that was left in the garage to the dump, and are happily using the refrigerator. A few weeks later the seller’s agent contacted us and asked if we wanted the basketball hoop and I said no, the sellers could have it back. I was a bit pissed that the subject even came up, and made a point of letting the agent know that absolutely nothing else of the previous owner remained so please don’t ask again.
Our agent told us that, in the event that trailer loads of junk are left behind he’ll personally arrange for a crew and some pickups to come and haul it off per the new owner’s direction. So I guess it happens with some regularity.
Around here, it’s pretty standard for most or all of the major appliances to be part of the sale. So standard that you’d probably have to make a point of them not being included if you were planning on taking them with you.
I’ve gradually replaced all the ones that originally came with my current abode, but did use the old ones for several years or longer. Had they not gradually died on me, I’d have kept them longer, since I’m not one to need the latest everything.
Our experience has been the opposite: all appliances that aren’t integral to the house (such as the furnace) are not included. The oven / range is left behind about 50% of the time. Washer and dryer are almost never left, the fridge is left maybe 20% of the time. I base this on our recent house hunting experience so I’m not sure if this is or has been a long term trend but it’s common now where I live (southern Oregon).
I think we lucked out and the sellers simply wanted to unload it as fast as possible.
Our house has a built-in wall oven and cooktop built into the counter (an ancient model with the controls on the vent hood above the stove, which is apparently so rare that the guy at he appliance store literally laughed at me when I was describing it). They are original to the house, so ca. 1967. There’s no way those would not be left, especially the Frankenstein’s monster of a cooktop.
When my parents passed, they left me their house. I already owned one, so put the house on the market.
Things could not have gone better…
A local chap (who knew me) offered the full asking price.
He made it a condition that I empty the house.
I invited him over to watch the removal men at work, and whilst that was going on the local chap offered to buy the oven, washing machine and fridge/freezer (they were all in good condition.) We agreed a cheap price (so I didn’t have to pay the removal men!) and both felt satisfied.
I only ever came across the phrase “broom clean” in relation to shipping containers. I once opened a supposedly empty container and found it was full of used packaging. The container company swapped it for an empty one and, I guess, the previous user was hit with the cost.
With houses in the UK, the contents are normally agreed in the contract. Things like washers and cookers are included as fixtures and fittings, but carpets and couches may or may not be included as an extra cost to the buyer.
Clearing a house of abandoned junk would be the responsibility of the seller, and if the buyer had to pay to get it cleared after taking possession, they might have to go to court for the cost. If they find a hidden stash of valuables, however, they would be the legal owners.
Usually (but not always) kitchen appliances are included in the sale. After all, rental properties already have a stove and fridge. So if the buyers are coming from rental, or the old occupants are going to a rental, they have no use for a stove and fridge. Almost all dishwashers are built in nowadays, so unless the sellers are moving to somewhere that has an empty spot under the counter, they don’t need the dishwasher.
Again, if more modern houses are like mine, the fridge has its own niche in the kitchen woodwork, so I dread the day if it dies and we have to find a replacement that fits - I certainly don’t see a need to saddle the next owner with that problem. (At least with dishwashers, they are generally all exactly the same size) It’s not like I’m terribly attached to that particular fridge.
Washer and dryer - more likely to move, but again, depends where the sellers are going and what the buyers have.
I guess it comes down to - do the new owners have appliances, and do they like the ones already there?
I rented an apartment for a couple years while shopping around for a house. The apartment was the second floor of a house and was in very poor condition, but it worked for me. I figured the landlord would be gutting and remodeling, so I didn’t put any effort into it when I moved out.
The landlord approached me after and said I should pay for the extra work needed. (There never was a security deposit). I told him I assumed he’d be ripping everything out. He asked me for $200, I handed him $100 just to keep the peace.
A few weeks later I saw the contents of the apartment on the front lawn (kitchen cabinets, furniture, stove, etc). The next time I ran into my old landlord he gave me $100.