Arn Cenedella

Home occupant under house arrest disclosure

Recently the State of California just added a new disclosure requirement to their almost endless list of required disclosures – It is called the home occupant under house arrest disclosure. Unlike most disclosures that are signed at the time one makes an offer on the property – this disclosure needs to be signed before one CAN EVEN SEE the property. After 29 years in the real estate business, this is the first disclosure I ever needed to be signed prior to even showing the house.

This disclosure recently resulted from a court case that took place in San Mateo County. The Trash family owned a house at 123 Sing Sing Drive that they wanted to sell. Joe Bail Bondsman, a local realtor, listed the house and then Mr. and Mrs. Trash told Joe that their son, Juvi Hall Trash, was under house arrest and could never leave the house even for showings! Joe said Cool – we can work with that.

So one day Joe showed the house to and older couple, Mr. and Mrs. Weakheart, looking to buy a home that their grandson, Honor Student, could live in while he went to Stanford University.  Joe was unaware that Mr. Weakhart had heart trouble and that he had a pacemaker.

Mr. Weakhart is walking through the house and when they entered Juvi’s bedroom decorated with Mettallica and Brtiney Spears’ posters, he suddenly didn’t feel too well and he was having a hard time catching his breath. He collapsed on the floor and had to be rushed to the Stanford Hospital. By the time Mr Weakhart arrived he was feeling better. The doctor asked him what happened. Mr Weakhart said he was looking for a house to his grandson who wanted to be a doctor and they went into the Juvi Hall, the teenager’s room, and started to feel unwell. The doctor didn’t understand why this happened and asked Mr. Weakheart whether Juvi by any chance had a ankle lock transmitter on his ankle. Mr Weakhart said Yes he did. The dector said that explains it – he said the ankle bracelet emits magnetic waves which screw up the clock in the pace maker.

Mr. and Mrs. Weakhart were really pissed at Joe the realtor since Joe did not warn him of this possiblilty. Mr. and Mrs. Weakhart sued for the cost of the ambulance and emergency room stay as well as for emotional duress. The jury ruled against the Realtor (as they always do) and Joe paid lots of money to settle the claim.

CAR developed this new disclosure requirement as a result of this case.

As with my errant golf ball disclosure post, this is just a whimsical fictional story from my silly brain.

Jill Heers of ERA Real Estate in Oceanside, CA has recently posted a true story about how she successfully sold an oceanview property to a cardiologist with an inexpensive digital camera.

Marian Bennett of Coldwell Banker Half Moon Bay has an even funnier TRUE story about showing a house where the occupant wasn’t quite ready for volunteers !

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 8:02 pm and is filed under Real Estate Disclosure, Real Estate Humor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. A funny thing happened on the way to show a home « Realtyjill’s Weblog said at January 17th, 2008 at 8:27 pm

   [...] An equally ridiculous story happened to my friend Arn who is with Coldwell Banker in Menlo Park in N……except that my story happens to be true. [...]

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