Post-occupancy agreements are like leases for sellers. It gives him the right to stay in their home, or I should say your home, for appeared of time after the closing has occurred. While this does not happen all the time, we are seeing and occur more and more often than not.
Before we get into this, you should know that it is quite common for homes to be cleaned out and ready to be viewed at the walk-through with no furniture, no boxes and no debris from the previous owners. In fact, the real estate contract stipulates that buyers will have occupancy of the property at closing.
In some cases, the seller requests the ability to stay after the fact. There are some inherent risks that you should know about. And while there are certain steps we can take to protect your position, a risk is a risk and you should know all about it prior to agreeing to such a request.
Here are the risks:
- There could be damage that occurs after the seller moves.
- The sellers may not leave the house as clean as they would if they were moving out prior to closing.
- Your insurance policy may not cover tenants.
In order to protect you, we recommend the following steps:
- A South Carolina post occupancy agreement will be executed prior to closing.
- The sellers will put down a reasonable security deposit to protect against damages.
- Check with your insurance company and make sure that you have a clause in their about tenants.
- Most mortgages for primary loans require occupancy within 30 days. For this reason, you might check with your lender if the time that they need will be longer than that.
Post-occupancy agreements can also create leverage for you. Put yourself in the other person’s position. They are stressed about packing and moving just as most people would be. If you don’t need the property right away you can offer a post-occupancy agreement in exchange for paying a lesser price. To create leverage is to create opportunity. We take great strides to make this happen for our clients.