Q: We have just bought a home in Baraboo. The contract stated the sellers would have the house professionally cleaned.
At the pre-closing walk-through, it was obvious the cleaning had not occurred. Our realtor contacted the owners and the reply to our realtor via text messsage was "This certainly isn't personal but we aren't doing one more thing and are seriously considering talking to a lawyer about the appraisal as we are feeling we gave up far too much."
The house appraised lower than we expected which resulted in some renegotiation on sale price, and they were not happy about it, obviously.
Backing out of the contract wasn't an option for us, as much as we would have liked to. We were moving from Texas. The moving truck was on its way. This "we're not doing anything else" response happens the day before closing!
We scrambled to have the house cleaned while it was empty. But we did complete the closing on the house. Do we have any options regarding seeking cleaning cost reimbursement or more from the previous owners?
They violated the contract, but we closed anyway.
A: The short answer is yes. You can file a lawsuit to recover the cost of the cleaning. You should consider small claims court.
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