I am closing on a house tomorrow. I happened to drive by the house and, knowing that it's vacant, pulled in the driveway and checked to see if some external work (outlets, etc.) that the sellers said they would do had been done. Agreed to as in, written in the agreement addendum signed by all parties.

None of the work that had been agreed to has been done. We close tomorrow morning. What is the typical way to handle this? I am assuming we can request money - but who determines how much?

Thanks!

Money will need to be placed into escrow account at time of closing that will cover the repairs.

Just visiting some older posts here, as this is a very relevant topic. Yes, the proper way to handle incomplete repairs at closing is to open an escrow account that forces the seller to place appropriate funds aside to have the repairs addressed by a professional contractor.

There are other options besides placing money in an escrow account, such as extending the closing date, renegotiating the deal, or adding stipulations to the current contract. However, in most cases, the escrow option will be the easiest alternative for a situation like this.

Lenders in my area have really taken a hard stance on escrowing for repairs especially if they were agreed to be done prior to closing. Talk to your Realtor ASAP on this matter and good luck getting a HUD changed by the lender in 24 hours.

they are paying more attention to that in my area too. it's now not such a good thing to "just give a credit" for inspection issues, which kind of sucks for the seller who doesn't have money on hand to pay for repairs out of pocket.

To answer the OP, you can usually request a certain amount of money to be put into escrow. When the work is finished, the seller gets his money back. If it is not completed according to the agreement, the money goes to you.