Nightmares in Condo Shopping 2
This is a follow-up to my previous post “Nightmares in Condo Shopping”.
I finally closed on my condo on Friday, September 8th!!! Congratulations to me!
(Actually, I always wonder why we say “congratulations” when someone buys something. Is it an achievement to spend a lot of money? It seems like we need a different word for that. A word that says, “Great. We’re happy for you. You dropped a lot of dough. Enjoy the high while you can because it won’t last long.”)
Anyhow, so I closed on my place on Friday. The tenant had moved out, so all my problems were finally over. After two weeks, I would get to sleep on a bed!
As I began moving the few belongings that I had in Austin, the previous tenant came over. He said that he had paid rent for this month and still had possession of the property. He got his lawyer on the phone who threatened that I was trespassing. I asked him how I could be trespassing on a property that I owned. He quoted me some legal speak that said real estate contracts have a clause that makes them null if they violate the rights of the current occupant. And since the tenant was still paying rent, he still had rights to the property. Never mind that he had moved out. Never mind that he had discontinued his electricity.
The lawyer than advised his client to call the police. So the cops show up, take a look at the tenant’s receipt for rent and look at my closing paperwork and basically refuse to do anything because it’s a civil matter until someone actually breaks the law. They encourage us to work out the issue amicably. Once the cops left, I spoke to my real estate agent. She suggested that I continue on with my plans since I owned the place. I explained to the tenant that he should take up whatever beef he has with the seller directly with him and cut me and the property out of the issue. I told him that I’m a student, classes have started, and I’ve been rendered homeless by him for the past month because of his reluctance to move out. He agreed that I was caught in the middle of all of this but he couldn’t make any decisions without consulting with his lawyer. I then proceeded to continue moving my things into the condo. After a few minutes, he apologized for all of the inconvenience and left. He promised to talk to his lawyer and call me in the morning.
I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, so I decided to spend another night on the floor and sleep in the new condo instead of returning to Houston as I had originally planned. I called a locksmith, and he came and changed the locks around midnight. That night I went to sleep and dreamt that I would have a big brawl with the tenant’s lawyer the next day. At noon, I received a phone call from the tenant saying that he convinced his lawyer that he wanted to leave me out of the issue and so they would give up their claims to the property and continue their battle directly with the seller. So with that it was finally over and I could finally move on with my life.
A few hours later I drove home to Houston. The next day my parents and I loaded up their minivan and we started the drive to Austin. But there was one final hurdle – their car stalled just a few miles outside of Katy. So we had to get the van towed back home. Just as we got back home, and I started thinking that the gods were stacked against me, our neighbors came home in their truck. They were happy to let us borrow it, and I was finally moved in around midnight on Sunday night. All that’s left now is to get some furniture for my living room, but I’m finally sleeping on a bed — without any more nightmares!
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