Monday, March 01, 2010

Does bank remove appliances and chattels when a property sells under Power of Sale?

Another good question about Power of Sale Properties

A reader wrote:

I am reading your Power of Sale information with interest. In the case of a home with the owner living in it, what happens with normal things that go with a house, for example appliances, window coverings, light fixtures?

Would those be stripped by the old owner, negotiated or left behind?

Thank you,

Allison

Hello Allison,

Thank you for your real estate inquiry. Every POS property is different.

Usually, the owner just abandons the property and leaves it as is. Most often the appliances, light fixtures and window coverings are present and stay with the property. If the property was a grow house, the appliances may have to be disposed of.

Since the owner is locked out of the property once the property is under power of sale, they have no method of 'legally' entering the property and recovering the appliances, so they almost always are there upon closing.

Usually, once a property has gone power of sale, the owner has moved out and on with their lives and trying to get back on their feet after or during this time they typically declare bankruptcy, but not always.

I've only seen one property under power of sale where the owner was still in the property. It was a unique situation where there was mortgage fraud involved, so the owner was not at fault and only stayed until closing. I've seen a few cases where there is a tenant present in the property and this seriously complicates the entire sale and also puts appliances and other chattels in jeopardy of being present upon closing or not.

The bank selling the property under POS will not warrant that the appliances (or any chattels) are included with the sale, but they will not remove them either. The bank wants the sale to go through, they write off any losses, may go after the previous owner for any deficit (as long as the owner has not declared bankruptcy) and move on.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions or if there is anything else I can help you with.

Thank you again for contacting me and I will do my best to help you with your real estate needs,

Mark

A. Mark Argentino

Do you want to receive Power of Sale listings?

Use this link if you have not already signed up to receive a daily list of new and changed Power of Sale Properties in the GTA


You can read all about Power of Sale Properties at this page.

No comments:

Post a Comment