Our buyers wanted to come in to measure for furniture before buying — after they had been in two or three times with realtor before offering— we said NOPE.

They never gave us the option to say no. We didn’t even know they moved our things until we were on the road back to the state where our house sold. In fact, our realtor denied all of it. When my former neighbor told us what was going on, we called him. He said our things were still in the house AND that the only work done on the house was that which was required by the VA. Both were lies. From the start it felt like my realtor was working for the buyer. The buyer had a realtor in the same office.

Has the deal closed? Maybe a call to management at the realtors office after conferring with your attorney.

I really don't have much experience in criminal law.... However, this is certainly sounfs like a crime. You should contact an attorney in the area where the crime was committed.

Odds are the attorney is going to contact the buyers and ask them if they would like to accept responsibility without your filing a criminal complaint, or if they would prefer that you file a criminal complaint and have the judge order restitution in addition to any criminal penalties.

Once you file a criminal complaint your insurance may reimburse you for damages if you decide to file a claim, but I suspect they will challenge several things about this, so I am not sure that is your best option. I would advise against trying to DIY this.

"They never gave us the option to say no."

NONSENSE!

I can't imagine why the OP would even need to say, "no, you may not burglarize my house."

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Allowing the buyer to supervise repairs required to close is a common procedure, it doesn't give the buyer permission to do other things and doesn't require saying "no".

Your realtor shouldn't even have let you close, in my opinion and I suspect they may share some liability.

So sorry this happened to you ! I would contact the police right away and file charges for trespassing and theft and property damage . I would also contact the insurance company and also the broker.

When we sold our house, our buyers wanted early access and we told them no. They thought we were jerks but we told them if they wanted in the house move the closing date up !

You think that the owner should have known that asking permission to enter the house for seemingly innocuous purposes implied asking permission to burglarize the joint? lol

@Stax - Just to be clear, I understood your original intent but I was trying to politely tell you that you were incorrect, without typing in bold and capitalized letters... NONSENSE! I understand my error now...

When the seller agreed to allow the buyer to make the necessary repairs to complete the purchase via VA, they lost the right to refuse the buyer's entry into the property. That is a rather common and perfectly reasonable request when doing VA loans. It is often better to let the buyers make repairs for VA loans as they can be quite particular and you run the risk of having your repairs rejected.

Securing the property and monitoring entries into the properties is the job of the selling realtor. There is no reason for a seller to take any affirmative action to deny access that was never allowed in the first place. There is no reason for a seller to deny a buyer's right to inspect and approve repairs done per the sales contract as that would likely increase the seller's liability for those repairs and when functioning properly the selling realtor will be monitoring those entries.

What you really have here is a buyer who acted inappropriately and a realtor who failed in their duty.

ETA: The sellers could, of course, reject the offer. In fact, they can prevent any buyer from ever entering their property by rejecting every showing and every offer, but few people can sell their house without allowing the buyers access.

I'm OP's daughter and I'd like to make a comment as well.

One thing was promised by our realtor, and that was our belongings being safe. Instead (and we discovered this when we went to get our stuff), the buyer and his FRIEND moved everything outside into our two storage units. They threw things, precious BREAKABLE valuables in garbage bags (some mixed with food from the pantry), piled heavy things on paintings and just didn't even make an effort to move things carefully. We didn't even know this happened! We were told by our realtor that logically things would need to moved to put in new carpet and other minor repairs. We put serious emphasis to our realtor that there were things in the house that couldn't be exposed to the state's weather/climate. We were told they just needed to shift things around. And they had plenty of room to do so in that house. We were given no notice, and especially no notice that the buyer and his buddy (a stranger) were going to be handling our items like this.

Was it legal for the buyer and his friend to move our stuff? We were told it was the buyer and his AGENT helping him at all times. Or at least that is what our realtor told us. Then again, both our realtor and the buyer's worked in the same agency. Just really feels like our own realtor was favoring the buyer over us.

@Anonymous Penguin asked, "Was it legal for the buyer and his friend to move our stuff?"

They didn't have a legal right to damage your stuff and they had a legal duty to make an effort to not damage your stuff. However, who is to blame for the damage, the extent to which they are to blame, and whether or not this is a tort or a crime is another matter. You should consult with an attorney who is in the area that the house is in.

If you don't need to sell and aren't worried about losing more money, then get a lawyer, file a suit against the buyer/realtors/brokers and have the whole sale come to a screeching halt. If you are really angry and feel like you were victimized, you can take action and do something about it ... or you can just close the sale and stay angry for a long time. Your decision to either move on or punish the bad/unethical behavior of the seller, realtors and brokers.

The only suggestion we can all give you is to go to a lawyer immediately. When is the closing?

The buyer's liability for their negligent damage of your personal property is actionable until the statute of limitations expires. You do lose some leverage once the sale is closed but none of your right to recovery.

Nor do you necessarily need to file a suit to get recompense. If they are charged with a crime any plea deal will likely include restitution. Or you might offer a reasonable settlement without filing.

The buyer is breaking and entering. It is still your home. You still insure it. It is a crime.

Bring charges.

How did he get access to your home? Who ever gave buyer a key is an accessory to the crime.

Bring charges.

Like most RE transactions when they get messy, this is still a negotiation.

You gave the buyer permission to enter and do some work. How much is up for interpretation. The rest is going to be unclear if you pursue damages.

OP did not give buyer permission to go into her house. T"he buyer went in weeks before closing, without my knowledge or permission, and made a lot of changes."

OP said he was supposed to go in with realtor to do VA required changes. Sooooo

I would advise against a criminal complaint prior to talking to an attorney. Only the state (polity) can file charges on someone. You can file a criminal complaint but in matters like this the timing of the criminal complaint may be far more important than the complaint itself in getting recompense.

In my experience prosecutors are unlikely to seriously pursue things like this, however, may give an assist for recovery. So your criminal complaint on its own may never go past his response.

How did they buyer get into the house without the agent? I believe you can file a claim against the agents insurance if the agent let they buyers into the house unsupervised. Any agents here? I am sure there is some protection for the buyer if a prospective buyer damages seller property.

As a lender, I inspected a home we were lending on for a few months till it closed. Coincidentally, the mortgagor (borrower) was moving out and the buyer was moving in a few of his belongings before the deal closed.

He never closed. But since he and his goods were in there with the owners' permission, he claimed he was now a tenant. It took the owners many months to have him removed after hearings processes at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

OP, git thee to a lawyer!

My 2 cents...

Most U.S. states hold that parties in a real estate transaction are invitees rather than tenants. You only become tenants when the buyer or seller clearly permits your living there before or after the close. Also, in most U.S. states sellers that refuse to vacate after the closing are considered trespassers and can be removed by an expedited detainer that only takes a few days.

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A note on the criminal/civil debate: Many of the things that the OP described are illegal but not really actionable. For example, how was the OP harmed because the buyer entered the property without authorization and painted the walls of his future house before the new carpet was installed? It is fair to point out that the buyer shouldn't have been there, but so long as the sale proceeds the seller has no damages. So there might be a trespass, but there are no damages from painting the wall and I am not sure that anyone is going to pursue this type of trespass.

The only damages the OP has mentioned are items that were packed and stored improperly, plus a few things that seem to have been improperly disposed of. The question as to criminal vs. civil then becomes whether or not the buyer had some right to do the things he did. If the buyer was granted a right to enter the property and ready it for carpet, then they were granted the right to pack and store things even if they did so inappropriately. Where the buyer gets into criminal trouble is packing and storing items from rooms that were not necessary or disposing of items they had no right to dispose of.

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I suspect that this is an opportunity for the OP to recover some reasonable amount from the seller and their realtor after consulting with an attorney.

I would argue that any possible insurance claim would require a police report. And filing a police report is free, while engaging an attorney will be expensive.

Insurance claims of damage do not require a police report, however, theft would.

The OP stated some items were missing. That’s theft.

@bichonbabe said, "I would argue that any possible insurance claim would require a police report. And filing a police report is free, while engaging an attorney will be expensive."

I submit, this demonstrates why the OP needs to see an attorney. Almost all homeowners policies will have a vacancy exclusion. Thirty days is the most common with sixty being the second most common and more than that being rare. Any personal property that is damaged or destroyed once the property has been vacant for longer than that period will not be covered. So I would not advise the OP file a claim and get an item on their CLUE, which will increase their rates, without being sure they are covered.

There are a thousand different nuances to this situation. Certainly, if the seller entered the property more than they were permitted to do in the agreement, then they trespassed. However, that doesn't mean the OP is going to get awarded damages...

Suppose the buyer argues that the seller had a duty to prepare the home for the improvement and the seller breached the contract by not doing so. When the buyer arrived and found the home was not ready for carpet, they took action to limit the seller's breach which could be greater than the entire purchase agreement. In their rush to "protect the seller" some items were disposed of and some were damaged but that damage was the result of the seller's breach and should be ignored as it was a consequence of an attempt to limit damages.

An attorney is likely going to attempt to remove that defense before it can be made by getting the seller to directly or indirectly agree to certain facts.

in most U.S. states sellers that refuse to vacate after the closing are considered trespassers and can be removed by an expedited detainer that only takes a few days.

I had no idea the US state courts system works with such effectiveness and dispatch!

I had no idea the US state courts system works with such effectiveness and dispatch!

Really? I was somehow under the impression that you had owned rental property in a lot of areas. There are sometimes a lot of hoops to jump through for detainers, but once you get to court it is usually fast. Once I file for a detainer I can be on the docket the next day that detainers are heard in most areas. I have never had to wait more than 2 weeks for a court date (other than the pandemic) in any state I have had rental property in.

ETA: Again, in every state I know of, holdover sellers as adverse possessors and not tenants. They don't have tenant rights. They can typically be removed by local law enforcement in a few days, some states with extensive squatter rights will move that out to a week.

you had owned rental property in a lot of areas

Aside from long-term land leases and vacant land, all but one were in the Greater Toronto Area.

Will be interesting to see how this case of squatters works out.

While renoing a six-plex in downtown Toronto, we let one of the crew live in part of the home just to avert such problems. In Ontario, a squatter moves in and the only legal remedy is to proceed through the Landlord and Tenant Board. Plan for a six-13 month delay before the Sheriff's officers finally arrive.

Will be interesting to see how this case of squatters works out.

You are unlikely to see the resolution as it is not "newsworthy." However, by Maryland law an unlawful detainer must be heard within 15 days of being filed. So, since there is no pre-fling notice in Maryland at most about two weeks to resolve, but most likely within 8 days.

I previously read the article linked above about the squatters in Maryland. It was a bit unclear, but I don't think the buyers have actually closed on the property. They have a sales contract. The solution is simple. Don't close until the squatters are out. The bank needs to take care of the problem.

This is why you do NOT let anyone in to a property prior to COE.