A Break-in Before Closing. Who’s Responsible?
Our soon-to-be house is a crime scene!
Just kidding.
But someone did break in.
The story.
With inspection over and all mortgage documents handed in, you’d think we’d be able to take a few days to relax before closing on our first property. But of course not.
The Troop took a ride over to the property and was greeted by a front door with no door knob leading to the second unit. Confused, he walked in to find the knob lying on the ground and noticed the entire door frame was broken.
Someone had broken in. Three days before closing.
Fortunately, the bad news ended there. As far as he could tell, nothing was damaged or stolen. No spray paint on the walls, no copper pipes missing, no homeless person sleeping in the kitchen. We really lucked out.
He called the local police department to file a report and as the officer and he scanned the rest of the property, they noticed the trespasser also attempted to enter through the first floor window. With such a solid hand print left on the glass, the officer dusted for fingerprints.
Keep in mind, all of this is happening while I’m at work and I’m super jealous. This is the closest I would have ever been to a real crime scene! (We’re BIG murder mystery show fans by the way.) Fingerprint dusting and everything!
(It’s hard to see the print, but it’s there. Damn do we need to address that horrible siding. Yikes.)
Who’s responsible for the damage?
Since we haven’t went through closing yet, we don’t technically own the home so there was no way I was going to pay and fix the damage to the door and door jamb. HUD homes are usually maintained by a third-party company while it sits vacant so we called them and had someone out the next day.
While they did come out quickly, they did a pretty crappy job. They just put the same knob back in the door and nailed the door frame back in. What can you expect though since the property will be off their books soon.
How you can prevent break-ins.
Well, you really can’t.
Since ownership hasn’t switched hands, you can’t install a censored light or a camera system. You just have to trust that the sellers are being responsible and hope nothing happens.
Up Next: Closing Day!
