Location: Putnam County, NY
My family bought a house in upstate New York in 1940. Over the years, it has become quite ramshackle. We’d go up there every weekend when I was younger, but our visits became more sporadic a decade ago.
When my dad ran out of money last year, we decided to sell the house. A good offer came through in August and we accepted shortly after with a deadline to clear out around late september.
In early September, I went up to the house to clean the furniture, planning to either take them home or sell and collect any family goods. When I arrived, a man was in the driveway. He claimed to be the buyer and asked me “What are you doing here?” After I explained, he told me, he/his team threw out everything that was in the house last week.
Shocked, I rushed off before getting his name or license plate. He was right. Everything was removed from the house. All the photos of my grandparents, all the furniture, everything. It was worth about 80k. All that remained were bits of construction equipment and materials. Work lights, concrete, wood slats, etc. The buyer had seemingly stolen or removed everything.
Additionally, construction had been performed on the base of the house.
I called the police, our lawyer, and real estate agent. All of them described this as unprecedented in their careers (love being exciting).
Over the next few weeks, I investigated everything and gained a pretty good idea of what happened. The buyer continued to contradict themselves and acted uncooperatively with any follow-up questions. I’m quite confident they at least know who did it. The buyer confirmed to us that they entered the house before closing, but claims it was only to work on the structure.
I don’t know how to proceed.
We ended up closing with the same buyer. We couldn’t afford to delay selling the house any longer.
By our understanding, as told by the police and our Real Estate lawyer, it shouldn’t stop us from suing them separately. Unfortunately, I don’t know what type of lawyer to use or who to contact.
I’m open to any suggestions.
Comments
You’d hire a civil litagator in Putnam County. There are at least three challenges. (1) Proving what was in the house, (2) proving what it was worth, (3) collecting the amount of any judgment from the buyer.
Do you have video or photographs, and if so, how recent are they?
Did the buyer admit in writing (email, text, anything) to clearing out the house?
How long before closing was this all done?
Should have never closed.
It would be civil now I believe.
What good would criminal do at this point.
Isn’t this breaking and entering as it was not there property and no work should have been conducted until after closing. There would have been more leverage in not closing and then you would most likely have been able to collect on your damages. Getting a judgment against someone is no guarantee you will ever collect on it.