What would you do if you found $40,000 in a house you just bought?

Flip the script:

If you bought the house and then suddenly, one of the previous owner's children comes and says "there's some money in the wall I'd like to get," would you let them?

HELLZ NO. Too late. Tough titty, Toledo.

 

As others pointed out, when you buy a house, anything left behind is yours. My current home, they left us with a couple of problems (yes, we have taken it up with the people who inspected the place for us). It's on us. We bought the place. I accept that.

And if I found $40,000 hidden somewhere, I'd accept that, too. Ifi I would give that money back, that's $40,000 less I have for my wife and kid. They come first. If that makes me an ass, so be it. We already knew that about me, anyway.

And schiez, regarding your bank story, I would have done the same in that instance, but no way in hell I wait in line. I get their attention and let them know I've come back to return the cash from their mistake.

 

I hope the Deseret News doesn't find an extra 40 grand in its own attic through laying this guy off next week.

 

And I would assume that the person selling me the house, or their heirs, in this case, did their due dilligence, inspected the property and took everything they wanted before I took possession of the house at closing. What's left behind is mine.

The guy did what he felt was right. But this isn't like Potter stealing the $8K Uncle Billy accidentally misplaced at the bank. I'd have no problem keeping the money. I'd also keep my mouth shut about it.

 

Probably not the feel good story, but I'd have kept it.

Who knows about the old man? What if the old man was pissed at his kids and didn't want them to have the money. Maybe they were total pricks and put him in a home because they didn't want to deal with him. I'm sure they;d never admit that and would be happy to take the money.

If it happened to me and someone called me after they found money in my folks house I'd have at least given them some sort of finder's fee. I mean, it's money I never had and wasn't expecting. Sure I could totally use 40 grand, but I could also use 20 and I'm sure the owner of the house could too. Just getting my name in the paper wouldn't do it for me. Yeah, I'm an asshole, but I'd be an asshole that had $40,000 more than I had.

I guess I just look at the previous owners of my current house and how they were awful to deal with between the time we made the deal and when we moved in and found so many of the things that were supposed to be fixed and done that wasn't and then they refused to do it afterwards. Nothing drastic just little things, they said they'd have the carpets cleaned, never happened, and a few other minors things all stuff I fixed myself, but it was more a principal thing. So yeah, had I found 40 large in the wall, they'd never see a penny of it. As it is I still get mail for them and their deadbeat kids from collection agencies and pawn shops.

 

If I find this, I'm probably in Vegas by the weekend.

It's not like this was in some hidden compartment in a wall. These were boxes left in an attic in the house. Could have been anything---pictures, old papers, books, hardware, old car engine parts, whatever. And let me surmise that's probably not the only things left in that attic.

Sounds to me like the old owners did a lousy, lazy job clearing the house. And if you leave the clean-up to me, well, I'm damn sure keeping the 40 large as compensation for that effort.

 

Exactly what I thought.

 

I'd have given it back.

There's a difference between what's morally right and what's legally right.

Yes, you buy the house and property "as-is." So likely, the seller would not have any legal remedy for return; although a contract is usually defined by what the parties intended, did the seller intend to give up $40k in cash? Not likely but still a possibility.

Morally, is that what you want to instill in society? You buy a house and someone left behind $40k so tough luck to those who never knew about it and if they had they would never have done the deal? Who should get the benefit of the doubt? Probably the seller.