Does he want a hug too?!

As the buyer of a home, you get a certain amount of time to inspect the home and decide whether or not you still want to buy it. If you find problems you can either ask the seller to bring down the price, ask the seller to fix the problems or take the place as is at the previously agreed upon price. John and I were aware of this going into the sale of his property because we had gone through the process on the condo we wanted to purchase. We made sure the place was nice and clean so the home inspector could come over and take a look at everything. We were told that things went pretty well. They were a little concerned about the air conditioner, but nothing that should hold up the process (or so we thought). For reference, the building is pretty old. The way all the heating and air conditioning works is that there is a central pipe that runs the height of the building and in the winter, the boiler heats the water and in the summer, cold water runs through the pipe. Then there is a heat exchanger and a fan that blows air over the pipe to get circulate it through the places in the building.

The buyer is required to sign an addendum stating the results of the home inspection and their intended action (whether they're requesting fixes, accepting as is or calling off the sale). John and I were expecting to get that within a day or two of the home inspection. Unfortunately, we were sorely disappointed. Even though we got the news that the buyer was planning to sign the paperwork saying they accepted the place as is, it never came. We waited a few days and then heard back from them saying they wanted the air conditioner checked out. They didn't send over any signed documentation (as they were required to do) requesting this. But I called the HVAC company that the condo association usually used to service any air conditioners in the building. The guy came out, charged John $60 and said "Everything is fine. I don't know what they think is wrong with it." John was a little upset because at this point, we had already passed the specified seven days in the contract for inspections. I scanned the sheet the HVAC guy had given him and sent it to our agent who in turn passed it to the buyer's agent.

They called our agent and said "Yeah, we'll send over the signed addendum saying we accept the place as is first thing in the morning." The next morning rolls around and they call and say "Well, we want to come back over and look at the air conditioner again." So Steve, our agent, took them back over to the property and opened up the air conditioner so they could look at it. While they were inspecting the air conditioner, they decided that the water shut-off valve looked rusty so they tried to request that we get someone out to change the valve. John was a little pissed at this point because we're already over a week past the seven days they were allotted for inspections and we've just paid $60 for someone to come out and look at it and we have signed paperwork saying everything is in working order and there's nothing wrong with the air conditioner. Plus, the valve that they wanted replaced was connected to the pipe with water running to the rest of the building. John's place was on the fourth floor and there were at least five floors above him. So they would have to shut off the water for at least all the floors above him. On top of that, according to the condo association declaration and documents, the air conditioner, being part of the inner workings of the building, was the responsibility of the condo association, not the condo owner. So, John, as pissed off as he was, posed the question to the management company asking if they would replace the valve on behalf of the condo association. They just laughed given that we'd just had someone out to look at the air conditioner and the thing was fine. So we sent back and e-mail explaining all of this to the buyer and telling them that they could take it up with the condo association if they wanted.

They said that they'd send over the signed addendum saying they'd accept the place as is. But that was just a ploy I guess because I they calld our agent back in the morning saying that they wanted to look at all the other units on sale in the building and take a look in their air conditioners. So, Steve met them back at the condo building and walked them through all the units on sale at the time and they looked at all the air conditioners. I'm assuming they all looked about the same as John's because they said they'd send over the paperwork saying they accept the place as is. Finally, the next day, they sent over the signed addendum saying they accept the place as is and did not require any work done on the place.

John's only response after that painful three-week-long experience "Seriously! Does he want a hug too?!" We had just wasted an extra two weeks that wasn't really needed. We didn't have much time to work on packing John's place before we needed to get everything out of there.