A hospitalized elderly man in Virginia is forced to sell his home after a housekeeper he hired years ago became a squatter, according to reports.
Owned by 79-year-old Thomas Burke, the five-bedroom, four-bath estate located in Fairfax was put up for sale earlier this week.
The listing stated that only cash offers were being accepted, which is currently valued at $56,348 more than the cash asking price, and that there is “NO ACCESS to see the lower level of the home.”
According to property records, Burke has owned the 3,500 square foot property since 1997, when he purchased it for $319,000 — around $576,000 today.
The listing, however, also came with a bizarre disclosure that warned buyers “that [the] home will convey with a person(s) living [on the] lower level with no lease in place.”
In 2019, the senior allowed an unidentified woman whom he had hired to clean the home to stay at the residence after she told him she was homeless.
“Three years ago, a woman was cleaning the senior owner’s house and she convinced him that she needed a place to stay,” Zinta Rodger-Rickert, who works for RE/MAX Gateway, told the reporters on Thursday. “So he offered her the basement.”
Rodger-Rickert then revealed that the act of kindness from Burke, who is currently hospitalized with an unidentified illness, soon backfired, after the maid refused to leave.
Since then, the woman never left and does not pay rent, according to the realtor.
“It is essentially an individual taking advantage of a senior who is ill and currently in the hospital,’ Rodger-Rickert added. “He will likely end up in hospice.”
Burke’s family is hoping to sell the home before he passes away but the senior does not have a will, which would make it difficult to evict the squatter.
The story has received some wild responses on social media after the listing made its way to the popular Zillow Gone Wild account.
“800k for 5 bd, 4 ba, and your own serial killer,” one user on Instagram commented, while another jokingly asked “Is the basement haunted? Feels like the basement is haunted.”
