Short version of my story... I bought a house a few months ago. I am doing some renovation before moving in (some of you may have noticed from my interior painter thread). About 3 weeks after purchase we check the attic (as we will need to do some structural work up there, and basically it is full of boxes. 6 hours later we have all the boxes down and each are covered with sweat. Each box has this certain kind of figurine in it - there about 60 in total. To me, very ugly stuff - why would anyone buy this...but, as with everything, I figure where there's a product, there's a buyer. So a few weeks later I put one up for sale on Ebay, don't make a crapload of money, but enough for it to be just worth the hassle of putting on Ebay, dealing with shipping, etc. I've sold off about half of these items. Mind you, before we bought the house it had been on the market (and unoccupied, they had moved already) for about 180 days. By the time I sold the first one the house had been unoccupied for only 9 months. There was also boxes of other random crap in the attic - mostly Christmas stuff. In either case, today, I get a call from seller's agent asking if they left anything in the attic. So I've told them I still have half they can get back if they pick them up. Was I an ass in the first place for just selling off stuff left in my new attic? I was going to throw it all away until Ebay came to the rescue?
To me, the people that moved out are more at fault than you are. Anything I find left I assume they didn't want, especially with the time period you described.
The previous owners had plenty of time to realize that their stuff was missing and see if they could check their old attic. Who knows, maybe it was stuff left behind by the owners before the previous ones. Or, maybe now that you've removed the cursed figurines from their resting place, your house will be haunted. That's what I would hope for.
Damn it, man. I wanted to click on "just"... why you trick us like that? Guess what, you're an ASS for that.
The house I own used to be a rent house of my fathers. After renting it out for 14 years it had taken a lot of abuse. SO when the last tenants moved out they left a lot of crap. One of the things was a photo album of a quinceanera. I felt bad chunking it in the garbage but man they house was a mess. They left so much crap it took weeks to get it all out.
Put yourself in their shoes... Would you really be upset/ surprised if the stuff you left in the house you just sold was gone with you tried to get it back 9 months later? Not me! If there was something I wished to get back, I'd be thrilled if anything was still there and couldn't blame anyone but myself.
I just asnswered the question based on my being an ass. I'll let you decide which option got the extra vote.
Mine didn't take weeks to remove, mind you, but it did take a good half day, in the attic, in August. Of course, selling on Ebay isn't snap of your fingers easy, either, though I guess I got paid for that work. Also, as with every house, there are always things you find out about later, right? So I could have been like, well...I guess you can have back what I have left IF you pay me back that $600 for [x,y and z] that wasn't quite so obvious during our walk-throughs and inspection...
My father last purchased a house in 1987. The old owners came back a few months later and asked if they could grab a few sentimental things from the backyard. My Dad, being the good-natured person he is, allowed them to get what they "forgot." They came back a couple more times with the same excuse. When they finally came back and asked for the greenhouse, my father told them to go to hell. You did nothing wrong. Give them back what you still have. After all, you bought the property with everything included.
You probably could have made a call or two just to be courteous, but like another poster pointed out, they had more than enough time to figure out whether they left something behind or not. To answer your question...you're not an Ass (not in this case anyways ).
The lady I bought my house from kept leaving me notes on my door for about 4 months asking me to look out for some letter she was expecting. She bought a house a year before she sold this one to me, but never bothered to change her address. If I get mail for her, I just throw it away. She had a YEAR to change her address. And she was a b**** during the selling process. That's her problem.
If after first seeing the stuff when you moved in, you didn't bother notifying them or the other agent, then yes, you are an ass. If you tried to notify them or their agent of the stuff left in the attic, and only sold it after attempting to give it back, then you are AOK.
Screw that, if they left crap in your house it's yours. Who the hell "forgets" to check the attic when they have stuff stored up there? They didn't want to move it then and now they want it. Well shucks, this ain'tcho crib, cuz.
i won't call you an ass off one decision but i generally agree with this. i think a phone call might have been in order. i thnk that's what you'd hope someone would do for you. but that doesn't make you an ass!
If you have to ask, .... I think most people would assume the stuff was not wanted, but you could have checked with the agent to make sure.
After 180 days of vacancy? I'm sure they didn't want it, or were too lazy to get it down themselves. I had a landlord at a rental do this. He left his Christmas stuff up in the attic. He clearly was just using the rent house as storage. I made him come get it all. I told him he was in violation of the rental agreement if he didn't allow me full use of the home. We moved. Left it clean. We got our full deposit, etc. 180 days is plenty to "realize" you've left something... and most house contracts are property and contents "as is." I still say no. 2 houses I've bought, both had stuff in them after months of vacancy. That stuff is long forgotten.
depends on what it is.....christmas decorations? i wouldn't know until right after thanksgiving. unless we were within 180 days of that, i wouldn't know.
In my case it was November 1st when we moved in... but I could see your point. However, I can find no fault in assuming that the stuff is unwanted. When people sell a home and.or move, they generally take everything they want. When I bought the home I live in, the seller had left a ten speed, and a home stereo unit... I asked about those because they both worked... But a bunch of "junk" in the attic is usually left out of laziness.
