We received our site survey today and for the first time since we moved here more than five years ago we finally have a clear picture of exactly what property we own. We now have confirmatiion of our suspicions that we had been misled at the time we purchased the house as to where the property lines actually were. Clearly, we could blame the seller’s agent, but chances are that he had been misled himself by the seller. I suppose that is all water under the bridge now. After five years we are probably beyond any civil remedy and nothing we do will change the property line anyway.
Our lawyer let us down
When we attended the open house, there was a survey sitting out on the table, but we only gave it a passing glance. That was the only time we saw any survey. At the time of our so-called home inspection, we asked the agent about the property lines, and, as it turns out, he gave us incorrect information. Regardless, our offer to purchase specified that we wanted a survey included. The seller’s counter offer modified that to “existing” survey.
We never received any survey at all. I contacted our lawyer by email. His response, which was all in caps, informed me in no uncertain terms that “existing survey” meant that we would get a survey only if one existed. That didn’t sit well with me at the time. I contacted our real estate agent and he contacted the seller’s agent who claimed that the survey was left in one of the kitchen drawers. At that point, it came down to our word against theirs and I assumed we had no further cause of action.
What we should have done was refuse to sign any papers until we had the survey in hand. But moving day was already long and stressful, and the movers were on the clock while we were getting the keys 35km away. Lesson learned. We should have closed on our old house a week after we closed on the new house. That would have allowed us sufficient time to straighten out all the paperwork and perhaps even walk away from the deal.
Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but we wouldn’t have walked
We did not yet know of the numerous problems with the house. And SWMBO absolutely loved the house so I probably would have compromised and downsized my garage plans anyway.
We’ll work with what we’ve got…
…as if we really have a choice! We now know where the property lines are. We now know the location of the house in relation to the property lines. We know basically what we want in terms of the addition and the garage. So now it will be up to the architect to work his magic. A copy of the survey and an auto cad disc are now in the architect’s hands. The next step will be to sit down and discuss our wishes with him.
Oh yeah, and let’s get started on the other projects
We’ll probably get the main floor bedroom area measured some time next week and get that ball rolling. Ideally, I would like to see that renovation done before Christmas. Only after that work is done will we have a clear enough picture of our finances to figure out exactly when we can afford to start taking a sledge hammer to the addition.
Finances finances finances
Just for the record, lest it appear that I am blowing my inheritance so soon after my father’s death, I would like to indicate exactly what our priorities have been.
- We paid off all of our consumer debt. We are carrying zero balances on our credit cards. We only use one credit card now, and we pay off the balance in full each month.
- We topped up our retirement fund. We’ll be seeing a substantial tax refund in April.
- We contributed to our daughter’s education fund.
- We took advantage of our mortgage prepayment options by paying down 15% before the anniversary date in August. We’ve paid down an additional 10% or so this year and are taking advantage of double payments whenever possible. Even in it’s current condition, we should finally have some equity in this house. And when it comes time to renew our mortgage next summer, our payments will be much lower so we won’t lose our house if either of our employment situations change. And if our employment situations remain as they are now we can take advantage of the lump sum and double down prepayments and be just about mortgage free by the end of the five year term.
- Only after getting our financial house in order have we turned our focus to the renovations. And these renovations have been planned for years now. Just the time frame has changed. Instead of looking years or even a decade down the road, we are now talking about months.
