Buyers insist owner's smart home devices come 'free' with home. So he programmed it to teach them a lesson
'I set up the entertainment room lights to turn on at full brightness randomly at night.'
The sale of a house can be tricky if you do not specify everything in the contract before the closing date. When a home seller (u/its-a-me--Mario) asked the buyers if he could remove the smart home devices set up by him, the buyers claimed it as theirs since it comes "free" with the home. But the seller did not let it slide, as he programmed them to make them regret it. Sharing the story on Reddit on November 26, the post attracted more than 4000 upvotes within a short span.
u/its-a-me--Mario built smart home devices into his house over the years. "For example, I had some devices set up to not reach the cloud and could only be controlled through my home PC, so they were basically unusable once my home computer was off the network, same with the front door camera doorbell," the author wrote. He explained that special equipment was required to load the non-standard firmware, and once it was installed, the normal app could no longer be used for setup. A few years later, when he decided to move to a different state, he put his house up for sale. The buyers seemed "friendly" at first, and he informed them that he would be taking his smart device equipment since the setup may not work for them. The buyers had no objection to it; however, the author had forgotten to mention it in the contract.
As the closing date approached, he offered once again that they might want to "buy the bundle" of devices, which he would reprogram according to their needs, or he'd have to take them away. "The buyers decided to complain to their car-salesman-type lawyer, who then complained to my lawyer that I'm breaking the contract by taking switches that are on the wall." While his lawyer tried explaining to them that the author was doing them a favor by taking the devices off the wall since they were unusable, their lawyer did not budge. With no options available, the author complied. However, since he had a few days before he handed over the property, he decided to "have fun with it." He said, "Since they were still mine until closing day, I decided to check out a bunch of new features on the switches. One feature is a built-in schedule that doesn't require any network. SCORE! I set up the entertainment room lights to turn on at full brightness randomly at night, you know, around the time people usually watch movies."
He also added, "I also set up the smart switch in the bedroom to turn the ceiling lights and fan off and on randomly at night. I also had set up nice cabinet lights in the kitchen and bought a separate WiFi controller to replace the original not-so-smart controller. That wasn't in the wall, so technically the contract said it was mine to take — and I did." While the author admits that it was petty of him, he believes that "if the contract is your leverage, it can be mine also." A 2020 report by the Cape Cod and Islands Association of Realtors noted that whether a smart home device stays with a property depends on whether it is considered a fixture or personal property. Devices that plug in or are not attached to the structure, such as smart speakers, are usually personal property and do not automatically transfer in a home sale.
Soon after the post gained traction, many users reacted to the author's petty revenge. u/megared17 wrote, "Wonder how much they had to pay an electrician to replace it all ;) Or alternatively, an automation company to figure how how to factory reset and reprogram." u/zw9491 commented, "Ah, so this is why the Texas Real Estate Commission added 'deliver to Buyer written information containing all access codes, usernames, passwords, and applications Buyer will need to access, operate, manage, and control the Smart Devices' to the standard contract." u/DataDude00 wrote, "Your lawyer / realtor are really bad if they did this without adding this clause. A house is the most expensive thing you will ever buy, leaving gaping holes in the legal agreement is just sloppy stuff."
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