Dear Monica: I am selling my property and the buyer has removed all contingencies. She has asked if she can do preliminary work on the property during the escrow period such as a survey and a soil report. Do you think I should allow this? Leonard D.

 

Dear Leonard: It is rarely a good idea for a seller to allow a buyer to do work on a property before escrow has closed. The buyer doesn’t own the property yet and shouldn’t do things such as destructive testing, which a soil report would entail. If a survey is done during the contingency period, this is a reasonable investigation for a buyer to make. But once contingencies are removed, it is not common to ask for a survey to be done and if the result raises issues, this could jeopardize the sale and put you the seller at risk. It is better for your buyer to do their further investigations after escrow closes.