Flipper/Rehabber · Vancouver, WA · Member since 2015 · 2 posts · 0 votes
I am sure many of you have had to deal with a tenant that had to get evicted and there is great information on that available. But how do you move forward if the seller of the house does not move out and does not communicate?
The seller is the owner until a transfer of title occurs, typically at the close of escrow. I think most people accept the exact moment as the moment that the deed is recorded. Once title has been transferred the seller is no longer the owner but becomes a tenant/occupant.
If the seller is still the owner, you cannot evict him. If he's an occupant/tenant, you can evict him just like any other "regular" tenant.
The seller is the owner until a transfer of title occurs, typically at the close of escrow. I think most people accept the exact moment as the moment that the deed is recorded. Once title has been transferred the seller is no longer the owner but becomes a tenant/occupant.
If the seller is still the owner, you cannot evict him. If he's an occupant/tenant, you can evict him just like any other "regular" tenant.
That does sound odd, but it sounds like a learning experience. If the owner was supposed to have vacated the house at the time of transference of title, you should not have closed escrow because the house was not vacated at the time. There should have been some final walk through or occupancy verification prior to closing the escrow. That would have been your backup leverage to remove the seller from the property.
Now you have people who are unresponsive, and there are all sorts of worst case scenarios that come to mind now (they got their money, they can damage the property however they want and you would have to use legal recourse to recover any damages. Not a good situation to be in.) aside from carrying costs while you try to remove them, and lost revenues due to those costs. You could try to recover in small claims court once they are out, but what a hassle.
I would definitely talk to a lawyer regarding this issue to see what your options are, preferably an attorney familiar with evictions and squatters rights.
Good luck, and as @Jason Mak said, keep us posted!