Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Former condo owner retains keys & parking space

One month ago, I purchased a condo and agreed to honor the current tenant's lease which isn't up until next August, then I plan to move in. The condo comes with two parking spaces and nice facilities. The prior owner used one of the parking spots to store her vehicle.

I just spoke to my inherited tentant and he informs me that the prior owner still has her car parked in one of the spaces; has one of the garage remote controls, and still has facility keys! I am shocked. The real estate agent I worked with did not represent the seller, but she lives in the complex and told my tenant that the prior owner plans on keeping it all until his lease is up. My agent never said a word to me. I feel like having that car towed away, but I don't know what my rights are. I am not sure what to say to my agent. She seems to have some agreement with the seller that I didn't agree to. I've been told that anyone who has an unused parking space in this complex can rent them for as much as $100/mo. Can I back bill her for the last month and two weeks?

thank you.


Asked on 1/06/05, 11:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Former condo owner retains keys & parking space

The prior owner must vacate upon a closing, and subsequently is a trespasser. As a practical matter, however, this doesn't look to me like a big deal in terms of financial damage to you, although it probably seems like an affront to your rights as owner.

Further, I don't see the real estate people who handled the transaction as necessarily resonsible or liable to you, although possibly they might be.

The practical thing to do here is to contact the seller and demand that the trespassing vehicle be removed within, say, 14 days, Tell her that if it isn't, you'll repaint it in a color of your own choosing, using a broom for a brush. Don't really do that, of course. Just try to scare or shame her out of there. She probably assumed that no one would care, maybe that no one would notice.

You are right and she is wrong, but this is not the kind of dispute that should ever find its way into the courts.

You are also entitled to change the locks, and I would do so if necessary to protect property, but a simple request for return of the access tools might be successful, and if so would be a much better approach. Cool it, man!

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Answered on 1/07/05, 12:43 am


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