Vacuosity

What now?

The past few days, busy ones, have been filled with me trying to meet the demands of the the buyers. Apparently their interpretation of "all mechanicals in good working order" differs from mine, and the one request of the fan became an entire list.

So far I have replaced five electrical sockets, two light switches, a faulty blower moter, a leaky shower diverter valve, fixed two stiff sliding doors, fastened a stair corner edging, recaulked a tub and installed surround sound speaker wire outlets.

Now, I am not obligated to do all these things, believe me, but I have done them for two reasons. First, I don't want anything to jeopardize our deal; I won't let that happen. Second, it's important to me that our buyers be happy with their new house. I want them to feel that they really have something special.

But, alas, there remains a rub: the question of the refridgerator. Our stupid fridge has a habit of wetting itself. On a humid day, or a day when the fridge door had been opened and shut quite a bit, you might find your sock drenched as you go for the milk.

I had this discussion with my agent about whether it need to be fixed:

"Does it get cold?", he asked.

"Yes."

"And the freezer works?"

"Yes."

"Well that's good working order. We never said anything about whether there's a bit of water. Just put a pan underneath it and forget about it."

That seemed reasonable. But when they came for their home inspection, and I had to I clean up the water and dry everything before they came, I started to wonder if that was right. In the past couple of days, it had been pretty bad, and I'm not sure that putting a pan is going to help it. I know that when they move in, it will be a matter of days, at most, before they discover it, and not only will they be upset, and try to contact us, but they'll feel that we intentionally deceived them. While that's not technically or legally true (we're not under any obligation to disclose the house's shortcomings), I would feel cheated if I were on the receiving end of that deal.

So now, the question, what to do? If I can fix it, I will, but if I can't? The moral dilemma continues. Would it mean shelling out for a new fridge? And what if the discussion surfaces the water damage to the floor of the kitchen? There's no provision in the deal for that, but you can be sure that they'll make an issue out of it.

We shall see what the day brings.

posted by David @ 7:34 a.m.