I am fine with it. I celebrate people gathering information before making a decision and really if my house inspires them, then great. I would probably give them an email and offer my assistance if they need it. In fact, so long as everyone is out of bed, you can come tour my house today.

"...Strangers Walking Through Your Home..."

It's why homes have doors...! :-)

Have you closed on the lot? or are you working with a production / neighborhood builder? If the latter - it's not your home yet - and in neighborhoods with builders, this is a common practice. Honestly - it's how many people learn and research, can look at a builder's practices and quality before it's covered with 13 pieces of crown moulding and marble. ;-)

I own the lot and I just had a deep conversation with my GC with the production of work. That's why the home is open because I have a GC that is not being very productive. You right Virgil, I need my doors...lol

Your insurance if they get hurt as well. The site should be secure or at the very least no trespassing signs. Production not withstanding, the home is invariably under construction for multiple months when someone could wander in and thru so he could be the most productive GC in the world and the home would still be vulnerable.

And after you move in and go to a neighborhood party, everyone there is saying "Yeah, we went through your house"...."We walked your house a bunch of times"...."Love your kitchen. Bet it looks great with the appliances in!"....etc.

No way! Have 'no trespassing' signs, streaming/recording cameras inside and out and much more. It's a contruction site, a girder or two may fall on your head, you could walk on a nail sticking out of a temporary board the workers pulled out (guess how I know but sheer luck prevented serious injury); in any case one could be asking for a lawsuit if someone got hurt.

this is sometime happens.....some people needs to gather information before stepping to another level of deciding about doing the same kind or construction or renovation and the best way to do is get information from any neighborhood projects

We've had long threads about this same subject before. I think some of them were quite entertaining! The opinions, just like the ones here so far, were split, with some being ready to jail the trespassers and others becoming best friends with them!

Here in my area of LA they securely fence lots under construction and padlock the gate when no one is there. Even the builders will send other customers to see the houses they are working on.

"this is sometime happens.....some people needs to gather information before stepping to another level of deciding about doing the same kind or construction or renovation and the best way to do is get information from any neighborhood projects"

What?

"...this is sometime happens.....some people needs to gather information before stepping to another level of deciding about doing the same kind or construction or renovation and the best way to do is get information from any neighborhood projects..."

Maybe the point is that some folks may have never seen a house under construction before...I dunno...!

I am ambivalent. Sometime’s I feel perfectly comfortable with the idea, and other times feel annoyed and intruded upon. I have invited my neighbors to come and take a look anytime they want (no need for me to be there), but when I drove up one day and found someone walking around the perimeter of the house, I thought to myself, “what do you think you’re doing?” It’s a small gated community with only 7 homesites (we have almost 7 acres) , so it feels more secluded and more intrusive if there’s a stranger on the property. We have built in typical tract home neighborhoods, and people came through all the time....it didn’t bother me at all. So, I think if I owned the land outright, it would bother me, but if it’s a tract home neighborhood or a situation where the builder owned the land, I would have no problem with it.

ur property extends to the middle of a small, deep set creek to the east. There's a bridge over it. This area is a kid magnet. I was worried that we could be held responsible if something happened to a child playing under the bridge and in the creek, so I inquired about that.

We *are* responsible. We were told to post a No Trespassing sign. Signs are cheap. Lawsuits aren't.

We walked through a few houses that my builder had under construction with the builders permission. We did take pictures. We owned our land outright before building. I'm sure there may have been a few people that went through our house. I know the builder brought someone through. Our house is far back in the neighborhood. The road was new so not many people knew there was even a house being built. The other day I met a soon to be neighbor who owns the lot 1 up from us. I'm pretty sure he had probably been through our house. That didn't bother me but what did bother me is that he knew a lot about us. Apparently he and his wife are from around where we previously lived. He had some governmental job and access to some kind of records and did a little snooping on us as well as other people in the neighborhood.

Around here the general thing is that it's best to ask first, but otherwise relatively OK to wander through during framing but not once doors and windows are in. Our builder has a couple of cameras on our site so they know anytime anyone wanders through. Someone reviews them just to make sure there's no mischief but otherwise don't get too concerned. There's an expectation that some neighbors will wander through.

We thought about putting a sign up saying that if they'd email then we'd be glad to meet them at the site to show them around.

The amount of liability you have depends on whose insurance is covering the build. If the contractor provided the insurance, you actually have no ability to order people off the property since the property is under the control of the builder. If you hired the builder and have a builders loan, you do have ownership. If that is the case, you need to provide protection for the site to minimize injuries.

I have wandered through new builds, with and without permission. Never without permission when the structure is dried in(doors and windows installed) whether locked or not. Never had a problem. And I would have a problem with people who did that on my build---but, when doors and windows are installed, locks go on and are locked.

Locally, a locked gate is No Trespassing---no sign necessary. I would think that may also cover new builds---locked doors mean No Trespassing.

Vinmarks, Wow about your snoopy neighbor! I guess there isn't much anyone can do these days about "privacy" when so much information is available online, but to have a stranger start to discuss things they know about you is downright creepy. I knew two people who got fired from their jobs because they wrongfully accessed and then used private information to further their own agendas.

As for insurance and injuries...

Anyone who comes on your property uninvited is a trespasser. You generally don't owe a duty of reasonable care to trespassers. However, there is a duty to warn them of danger if you are aware of, or should reasonably expect, trespassers.

I would argue that the existence of a construction site is sufficient warning, but to be safe you should post Danger signs. Please note, no trespassing signs offer no protection if you are aware of trespassers.

You are much more liable for a construction worker getting hurt on your site than you are a trespasser.

The one exception to this is attractive nuisance, in which case you should adequately fence the entire construction site as other measures are likely insufficient.

In my area, walking through homes under construction is a Sunday past time LOL. It's what everyone does around here. A bit intrusive, yes, but I'm completely guilty of walking through other's houses without permission too. I know that hundreds of people walked through my home while it was being built. I owned the lot and was the GC so I took out lots of insurance and posted many "danger - construction site" and "no trespassing" signs just to be safe, but still, hundreds of people walked through. There was no way to stop it, unless I fenced the entire project, and still, I think people would have found a way in.

There was only one time when we came to work on Monday and found some minor damage that I'm positive was done by some neighborhood kids. I quickly posted on my community's Facebook page about the dangers of our site and not to let kids play on my property. That seemed to do the trick as it never happened again.

For the first few weeks after we moved in, all of our neighbors within two blocks of us, the mailman, the UPS guy, the FEDex guy, plus random subcontractors working on houses in the neighborhood knocked on our door and wanted a tour. One day we had 8 different groups! I gladly obliged and after a few weeks, it all stopped. I think people are just curious and we really didn't mind showing off our house :-)

I expect people walk through mine. I know a friend of mine has as she told me. I am sure our neighbours and other future neighbours building on close by lots have gone through. Ours has just been insulated and poly’d but sometimes it is locked, sometimes not, so I am sure people go through.

Our builder has all builders risk insurance on it, and we are additional insureds on their policy, but we also added our own insurance once we got title (builder owned lot for first couple months of build). I am building on a street where there is one completed house, a few in various stages of completion, and a lot more to come. I totally have gone and snooped in them once they were framed (but not closed in). I feel a little weird going in them any further than that especially if they have a “Sold” sign on them.

Val B, I think your example is completely different as you were living in the apartment. That mother and grandmother were way out of line to give themselves a tour of your home. I would have made sure they never got to see the finished product!

I am fine with it. I celebrate people gathering information before
making a decision and really if my house inspires them, then great.

I'm with you -- while the house is still in the framing stage /doesn't have doors yet. Once the doors are up, then it's creepy to go into someone else's half-done house.

As for someone being injured, possibly but unlikely. I think most people would be ashamed to admit that they were on your property and would not tell anyone. If they did, you could countersue for tresspassing. Most ridiculous lawsuits (i.e., hot coffee) are tossed out of court.

Mrs. Pete - except the hot coffee was not tossed out of court. She won compensatory damages & punitive damages. One significant issue was there had been complaints of burns by other customers for a long time before that one happened (and settlements) and the warnings were inadequate for how hot the coffee actually was.

Nothing ridiculous about third degree burns to pelvic area, thighs & genitals, skin grafting, hospitalization, and two years of medical treatment. I won’t post the pictures here, but you can find them on the Internet. Her burns were horrific.

Funny thing is initially all she asked McDonalds for was to help her pay her medical bills (after insurance). They refused.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants

Not sure what countersuing for trespassing where you are would get you - here not much unless they damaged your property. Could claim contributory negligence though.

I mentioned the hot coffee because it seems to stand out in the public's collective mind as an example of a frivolous lawsuit ... and my point is that such things are rare ... and it's more rare still that such things result in negative consequences for property owners. I just don't think you're in terrible danger if someone comes onto your property.

Just as an aside, as a defense lawyer I detest frivolous lawsuits and there are many. However, I attended a seminar that discussed the hot coffee case for two hours and it was more complex and not as frivolous as commonly believed. Also I saw the burn pictures and they were horrible.

On topic, we really had no problem with people walking through our property as it was being built. Some did and told us about it later, but it wasn't a big deal to us. We've also walked through a few, but usually we knew either the builder or the architect and had been told to take a look around.

When my parents built our new house in the town to which my father was transferred, there was still a LOT of building going one. It was that time's version of "binge watching", to walk through all the houses every few weeks and see the progress and what it was going to look like. No one could have cared less.

Thank you Rai Kai. Skin grafts are no laughing matter. She offered to settle for her medical costs - the deductibles and copays. About 20k. The establishment declined.

I guess I'll go with the golden rule here. My wife and I love walking homes to get ideas and so we don't mind if someone else does the same to ours.

Main thing is, how can you really keep them out effectively - till way past the dry in stage?

Years ago, we built a home in a basic subdivision. In the evenings after dinner, we would go over there to see what the builder had done during the week. We wandered all over the neighborhood building sites. Given the circumstances and the fact that all of the under construction houses were open, it never occurred to me that anyone would object.

Fast forward to our building custom home on a 20-acre farm. Our next door neighbor, also on 20 acres, apparently was going through our under construction home without our knowledge. Our builder caught him. This soon-to-be neighbor was also a builder. He was peeved that we hadn't used him. He was going through our house measuring it because he thought what we were building didn't meet the deed restrictions for minimum square footage. The house did meet the minimum. It really wasn't any of his business. But this guy was an awful snob and had built a McMansion. We think he was concerned that his awful house value would be diminished. After we found out, relations were cold.

Look at it this way: It is better for strangers to walk through your unfinished home, than have them walk through your finished home.

Back when I was a kid, my parents would go through barely-framed homes in the neighborhood just out of curiosity. (Sometimes they'd take me, too. I enjoyed seeing how the bones were put together, kinda like how I liked seeing how our roast chicken was put together when we carved and ate it. No wonder I majored in Biology...)

My feeling is... once doors start going up, don't. Locked or not. Or if there are signs, respect those.

I didn't mind that others saw mine in the early stages. In fact, I told barely-met neighbors to take a peek.

Reason #13,829
Why I Am Going To Hell

When I was growing up, our community was still semi-rural, and houses were put up individually rather than in developments.

A home construction site was a wonderment to all of us kids, and every evening we explored, no matter what stage the house was in. We climbed scaffolding, crawled across joists and rafters, and committed all sorts of dangerous feats — the riskier, the better. The houses were all far enough apart that we were out of sight of any parents.

Now I cringe thinking of what we did, but it is a bit better than
Reason #13,830
Why I Am Going To Hell
In this one, some horses were kept by absentee owners in a nearby pasture, and my sister and I snuck over to ride them. Now, as a horse owner, I am horrified that I did this!

Nothing wrong letting someone see your house under construction for as long as the homeowner doesn't mind and gave permission, the contractor says it's ok to see it because it is safe to do a supervised walkthrough (he knows best when its safe and when isn't).

People who enter any private property under construction on their own without permission lack common sense, especially when some bring kids with them and let them run around without supervision while they walking around... They have no clue whats going on there and you hear lots of horror stories when people get hurt or worst wondering around construction sites.

Here is a perfect example, a while back someone went to look at the townhouse they wanted to purchase, it was almost completed. The day before they installed a counter on the raised bar counter, and it wasn't finished the support brackets weren't installed.

The couple entered the house to see it on their own without an appointment, the husband leaned on the bar counter, the granite flipped and slid down crushing his toes and few of them had to be severed.

Even when you go to someone house, how many times someone told you "watch your head there is a low ceiling there" or "watch your step for one reason or another" etc. Without knowing some will take a nose dive or bang their head.

You cannot trespass private property without asking permission or any construction site without supervision. Period.

Thought of this thread today as my DH went to see the work on our house and found our new neighbors inside touring house. This is not new construction, we moved out as our remodel is extensive, the touring couple just closed a few doors away, they know we're not living here as we met them on the street a few days ago. I'm sure they thought they were safe walking through the house, my DH drove up to check on things and found them in a back bedroom. They were extremely embarrassed and babbled about every room, clearly they would have been better off keeping their mouth shut, but their embarrassment kept them talking. In the end I don't personally care, I strongly dislike their presumption, now I know to steer clear of them in the future. I'm sure we'll laugh about it for some time.