All Rebecca Halbreich wanted was to move into her new house in La Canada Flintridge. Her boxes were packed and ready.
The sellers of the four-bedroom, three-bath home, however, showed no signs of getting out. None of their many artworks or sculptures had been crated. They decided late in the game that they wanted to stay 12 days \o7after\f7 escrow closed.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday December 11, 2005 Home Edition Real Estate Part K Page 6 Features Desk 3 inches; 125 words Type of Material: Correction
Editor's note -- An article in the Dec. 4 Real Estate section about what buyers can do when escrow closes and sellers don't move out centered on the story of one buyer trying to move into a home in La Canada Flintridge, based on the perspective of the buyer and her agent. However, the sellers and their agent were not interviewed for the article, leading to a number of statements that were not verified with the sellers and the sellers' agent. According to the sellers, the delays were not due entirely to their procrastination, as the story portrayed. The article should not have been published without The Times' verifying the accuracy of the statements and without the perspective of the couple who sold the house.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday December 11, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 3 inches; 125 words Type of Material: Correction
Editor's note -- An article in the Dec. 4 Real Estate section about what buyers can do when escrow closes and sellers don't move out centered on the story of one buyer trying to move into a home in La Canada Flintridge, based on the perspective of the buyer and her agent. However, the sellers and their agent were not interviewed for the article, leading to a number of statements that were not verified with the sellers and the sellers' agent. According to the sellers, the delays were not due entirely to their procrastination, as the article portrayed. The article should not have been published without The Times verifying the accuracy of the statements and without the perspective of the couple who sold the house.
Halbreich couldn't wait. Her family vacation to Paris loomed; the plane tickets were nonrefundable.
Her three kids kept asking, "Mommy, when are we going to move?" she recalled.
It happens. Escrow closes. The new owners take title, but they can't get in because the sellers or their tenants refuse to leave.
What's a buyer to do?
Be flexible, experts advise, and if possible compromise on the move-in date. If that doesn't work, postpone taking possession until the sellers leave, then go to mediation to recoup any financial losses due to hotel bills, double moves or storage fees. As a last resort, turn to eviction, but count on a lengthy and costly legal process.
It's not that people don't know it's time to go. Standard contracts include deadlines, putting sellers on notice that they must move out and deliver the keys by a certain date, said June Barlow, vice president and general counsel of the California Assn. of Realtors.
Yet delays are common in real estate deals. In Halbreich's case, she pushed the original close of escrow back two weeks because the buyers of her Malibu house ran into problems. That postponement, she believes, upset the La Canada Flintridge sellers.
Negotiations generally take care of such issues. And, when a seller can't get out on time, contracts can be amended to include a short-term rental agreement after close of escrow, said the CAR legal expert.
If sellers need more time, Barlow said, "the easy thing to do is make some accommodations."
If nothing works, disputes go to mediation.
"It doesn't mean you have to come to an agreement through mediation, but at least you have to try to settle it," Barlow said.
If that fails, buyers and sellers who agreed to it in the sale contract can take their conflict to arbitration, which is like a mini-trial with a neutral third party making the decision.
Halbreich initially sympathized with her sellers.
"They had lived here for 40 years and raised their four kids here," she said. "All of a sudden, they're retiring and moving. I think emotionally, it was too upsetting for them to leave."
