Snohomish County family living out of moving truck; Realtor blames county

At least one family is living out of a moving truck, and their Realtor blames Snohomish County.  They were supposed to close on Friday, but the county did not get their deed recorded before the auditor’s office closed for the long weekend.

Most people are spending the holiday relaxing with their families; Realtor Rob Gadbois says his clients are with their family, but there’s nothing relaxing about it.

“I had my clients in the U-haul truck, with their house loaded up with, with their 8-week-old baby boy waiting to head over to the new house, and they weren’t able to, so at that point they’re just kind of stuck, unfortunately,” Gadbois explained.

Gadbois says it is Snohomish County that dropped the ball.  He says Friday all of the paperwork needed to finalize the sale was filed with the county, but the county didn’t get the deed done and now the office is closed until Tuesday.  Rob says he heard from the escrow company that dozens of transactions were not recorded Friday.

So we called the county auditor.

“Has that ever happened where someone is waiting to move and they don’t get the deed in time so they’re stuck in transition?” we asked Carolyn Weikel.

“I can’t say that it’s never happened but I don’t recall the last time of it ever happening, and I certainly don’t recall the volume people are saying happened,” she explained.

Weikel said she wasn’t there Friday but her staff said it was business as usual, and purchase deeds are almost always recorded the same day they’re received.

Gadbois says in the meantime his clients have had to postpone a trip and find a place to park a now-overdue moving truck.

The auditor told me she will be checking with her staff again Tuesday about any issues they may have had Friday.  Also, Friday the office closed at 4 p.m.  Gadbois thought it was supposed to stay open until 5 p.m., but that's only if the last business day of the month falls on Friday.  The last day of May this year is Tuesday.

Cox Media Group