On Monday we were supposed to close on our first home.
We were going to get the keys, and officially become first time homeowners. I had paint colors picked out, and a new mailbox ready to go. My husband had taken the day off in anticipation of spending the day signing papers and taking care of legal matters. Then we got to the house to do the final inspection, and found out that the seller had not grounded the electrical outlets like we asked for in the contract.
Everything stopped. Then it exploded.
Our Realtor started calling people. The selling agent tried to convince us that it was impossible to ground the outlets. I corrected a grown man’s understanding of electrical wiring, and his definition of the word “impossible.” My husband finished inspecting the rest of the repairs while we were distracted, because he is awesome like that.
On Wednesday the sellers tried to pass different repairs off as the ones they agreed to.
They installed GFCI protected outlets, which do have three holes, and are up to code, but do not ground the outlets. They even have little stickers on the outlet covers that say, “No Equipment Ground.” We had a master electrician come in to inspect the work and to verify that the outlets were not grounded. He suggested that we just ground the outlets by connecting the ground wire to the neutral wire. I explained that was called a “bootleg ground” and did not meet code requirements. He said he had been doing them for forty years and they were fine. I insisted that we call the city inspector and ask him.
The city inspector said that grounding an outlet in the suggested manner was illegal.
The sellers refused to ground the outlets.
On Thursday I met with a lawyer for the first time in my adult life.
After a forty minute drive, I spent half an hour with a well-spoken man in a suit who told me that my husband and I were in the right. He would be happy to represent us, he said, if he were not going to Aruba next week. I left with a lighter pocketbook and some good advice. That evening we asked another attorney, who also could not represent us in litigation, to write a letter to the sellers explaining that they were in default, and establishing that we had been ready and willing to close since the original closing date.
Today (Friday) we sent the final draft of the letter to the sellers, hoping that they would give in and do the work.
As I was writing this I got word back from the attorney that the sellers refused to comply with the contract. They will not do the work.
I guess on Monday I get to meet a whole new set of lawyers.
Our Small Adventure 