Vent

We're in contract and have been since August. DH and I finally got all of our paperwork and money in order. Mortgage has been approved. I spoke with my Uncle (who is our RE Attorney as well as the bank attorney) and he said that the sellers don't have a CO for the finished basement. The house was on the market for 6+ months, we've been in contract for 2 months, and NOW you realize you need a CO? And before we went into contract, we asked the seller's broker when we saw the house for the 2nd time if they had all CO's and he said yes. I like the sellers a lot and they are eager to get out since they've already purchased. I really think the broker was just yessing us to make the sale. All of our dealings with this guy have resulted in a misrepresentation of the facts. He listed the taxes wrong, he lied about the CO, and when the house didn't appraise and we wanted the sellers to lower the price slightly, he basically refused to ask them until my Uncle spoke with the seller's attorney who spoke to the sellers.

I just want my closing date already!!!!

Re: Vent

What a scum bag...I was kind of in your shoes but he guaranteed he would have all CO's by closing and surprisingly he did. He had it expedited and it look 3-4 weeks. Hang in there, this whole process is so tedious.

Message edited 10/10/2011 10:57:33 PM.

Re: Vent

That stinks if the RE agent deliberately misrepresented facts. Highly unethical. And really, it's not in the agent's interest to hide the fact that there's a missing CO, because the issue is eventually going to come up. And the agent doesn't get paid until the closing, so he should want the closing to happen asap, too!

BUT -- that may not be the case, that he deliberately misrepresented. Sometimes, the listing agent is relying on the sellers for information, and the sellers are not aware they don't have the proper COs.

For that reason, in my office, we independently verify (with the town) that all COs are in place for our listings, rather than just taking the seller's word. It's to no one's benefit if a CO issue crops up late in the game. But not all offices/agents do that. So it may be an issue of lack of due diligence (not that it's excusable!) and not deliberate misrepresentation.

The sellers may have obtained the permits necessary to finish the basement, but they never "closed them out" by getting the COs when the work was done. In my experience, a lot of people think they have everything they need, when in fact they just have open permits and still need COs. So your sellers may have just told the agent that they had everything for the basement. The good news is that it is relatively simple to close out the permits if there were permits obtained in the first place.

Good luck!

Re: Vent

Re: Vent

That happened with our deck, they didn't get the CO for it until the last 2 weeks before closing. So annoying, I think they were trying to let it 'slip' by.