When you buy a house, it’s generally assumed that the seller should vacate the home after the buyer closes the deal, right? Well, apparently not — at least for an unfortunate home buyer in Illinois who bought a new property to live in over 30 days ago. Even though an entire month has passed, the seller refuses the premises and even calls the police when the buyers attempt to move in. “[They] say they have no place to go and it has been their house for 3 decades,” the buyer explains about the now-previous owner. Bizarrely, “Police says it’s a civil matter.”
“This is lawyer territory. You must evict them asap,” suggests a commenter in the Illinois home buyer’s Reddit post. OP claims to have contacted a lawyer about getting the seller out of the house, “but he says it could be a 2-3 month process.” A big concern would be if the seller were to damage the property before they finally get evicted. But one commenter asks the critical question, “Why would you close escrow unless the house was empty? Didn’t you inspect it before closing?“
“Why did you not do a final walk-through? If the house was not empty on walk-through, why did you decide to close?” another user asks. The Illinois resident explains that it was a “short sale deal” and that the house was “going to be lost in tax sale the next day.” As a result, they are unable to go back on their decision, even though the unreasonable seller won’t leave.
Some commenters say different things regarding how much the law assists in getting squatters removed from homes in Illinois. One claims that squatters are removed in a “more timely manner” thanks to a new law passed. However, another disagrees, saying that the law “just heavily favors squatters.” Unfortunately, the latter does seem to be the case, as OP states the lawyer said it’ll take several months to get the seller evicted. Bummer.
One Redditor wishes the buyer the best of luck in getting their new home out of this ridiculous seller-squatter situation. However, they leave the rest of the comment section with some solid advice: “To all, let this be a lesson. Do not skip the final walk-through and schedule it the day of closing and not the day before or a week before.”
