Who owns the ceiling fans, homebuyer or seller?
Q: We recently sold our house and took the ceiling fans that we had bought. But now the new owner wants them back. These did not come with the house. We bought them. Is this right? Because it seems absurd to me. — G.
A: While there are exceptions, the general rule is that anything permanently attached is legally considered a fixture and becomes part of the real estate.
If you wanted to take the fans, prospective buyers should have been notified in your listing information and it could have been noted as an exception in your sales contract.
Sorry, but the buyers are in the right.
The fact that you bought those fans doesn’t matter.
After all, you might have put in wall-to-wall carpeting or a new towel rack, but that wouldn’t entitle you to take them when you left.
The buyers have the right to receive the house as it was when they saw it, not as you originally bought it.
If there’s something homeowners intend to remove (classically, it’s the dining-room chandelier), the easiest solution is to replace it before potential buyers view the house. What they don’t see, they can’t argue about.
Mother may have paid too much
Q: My son purchased some land in 1998 for $18,950. The owner financed this at 9.5 percent and it would be paid off in August 2013.
Wanting to help my son, I paid off the loan early in August.
I know it was foolish of me to pay the extra interest.
My husband figured out the interest that would have been charged if the contract had ended in 2010. Interest for 140 months equals $12,470.
The interest I paid for 176 months was $16,221, creating a difference of $3,750.
I have written letters to the former owner, but I haven’t heard from him. Do you think I should hire a lawyer?
Or am I working a dead horse? — Liz
A: To pay off the mortgage, you should have sent the lender the debt that remained last August.
Assuming that was an amortized (gradually paid-off) mortgage — with monthly payments including principal and interest — that would have been around $5,400. If that’s what you sent, fine, but perhaps you mistakenly sent three more years of monthly payments. Yes, that would have included interest on a loan already paid off.
If so, take all your papers to an accountant, who can give you the right figures.
With so much less being borrowed at that point, the last three years worth of payments would have gone largely to pay off the debt. An amortization schedule I used on the Internet indicates the extra interest portions totaled less than $1,000. You could always sue for that in small claims court.
Edith Lank will respond personally to any questions sent to her at 240 Hemingway Drive, Rochester, NY 14620 (please include a stamped return envelope), or readers may e-mail her at ehlank@aol.com.