On May 8, 2021 The Villlage Sweep was hired by prospective home buyers to inspect the chimney and fireplace in my Cape Cod in Bernardsville, NJ. Prior to their arrival I washed and polished the floors in my living room, dining room, kitchen and hall (this is an open floor plan and all one room) I was told that the inspection would take about an hour and the technician would need access to my chimney, and fireplace in my living room. I have no idea what they did when they were here with the prospective buyers and the representative from my realtor was sent to sit in her car.
I returned to find my living room chairs moved (I have 3 chairs left in my living room there was no reason to move anything) a candy wrapper on the floor, my basement door wide open, mud tracked through my kitchen and ALL of my gates wide open (one to come into the front yard and two to go into the back yard at opposite sides of the house) Both the house and Chimney are accessed through the front gate one of the gates has been deliberately jammed shut so my dogs can't escape. We didn't realize the unused gate was open until we found our elderly dog in the street.
While all of the above was bad, I could have let it go, EXCEPT for the gate as my dog could have been hit by a car. the condition they left my fire place was just sad and disrespectful. The technician thought it would be funny to turn my antique family heirloom andirons upside down and balance them in the fireplace against the grate on their tops. Why? I called and was only able to leave a voice mail, which was never returned. I also sent an email asking for a reason my things were left this way, again no answer. Of course the buyer's agent knows nothing, he is a local agent and this is a small town, if this kind of stuff happened with him, I am sure my agent would have heard about it. read more