OUT! Out I say!

[Aethian]

This came from one of my customers I delivered a certified letter to. She just had to show me the letter which made my brain hurt.

See this customer bought her home from her landlord. Paid the landlord in a lump sum payment, rest of the papers were signed, start of the new month she was paying her mortgage. YAY for her right?

Well not so much yay for her because she bought her home four months ago. Her landlord is suing her for non payment of rent and giving her a seven day notice to vacate the property.

Anyone else see the problem there?

I told her to counter sue for her next months worth of bills, court costs, and get herself ahead on everything by a month. And when the judge askes why she isn't paying...bring in her mortgage documents. I bet anything the judge will have a few choice words for the landlord.

[Polenicus]

Nice, so her landlord is trying to scam her into paying him rent on a property she legally owns?

If she's got a mortgage, then the title to the house has to be clearly hers, so he hasn't got a legal leg to stand on. I'm not sure exactly what he's trying to pull or how he thinks he'll get away with it.

[jjllbb]

I hope she knew what she was doing when she "bought" the place from the landlord. He's obviously running a scam but the question is whether he really signed the house over to her and is just trying to scare her into rent, or whether he tricked her into signing something and made her think she had the house.

[Aethian]

Probably was hoping that since she goes to school so much she would miss the court date and he would get one of the judges here who goes through eviction proceedings FAST. Once saw him do just over 40 cases in one hour. I was someones ride, only reason why I was there.

jjllbb, she went through a well known local realtor to buy the place from him. He's trying to pull a fast one.

See she was paying 675 in rent alone, now with her property taxes, mortgage, insurance she only pays 425 and some odd change. (Her and I talked numbers and share a class together.) So he's loosing out on the deal and from the work she's done on the place I can see easily adding 10-15K in value to the property.

[Ironclad Alibi]

See she was paying 675 in rent alone, now with her property taxes, mortgage, insurance she only pays 425 and some odd change. (Her and I talked numbers and share a class together.) So he's loosing out on the deal and from the work she's done on the place I can see easily adding 10-15K in value to the property.

Does the landlord hold the mortgage? Since a realtor was involved, I would assume a bank holds the mortgage.

[Aethian]

Yea bank holds the mortgage. I don't know what he is all trying to pull. When I get more info I can certaintly give more.

[JLRodgers]

How did he manage to even file suit? Did he take in old paperwork or something?

Given what I've seen landlords do in the past, I only hope things turn out well for her - and she can actually prove what happened (just in case of course).

[Andara Bledin]

Anyone can file a suit. It's just a matter of filling out the paperwork and paying the fees.

All you have to do is pay attention, respond when it's time to respond, and if you're smart, counter to get all your fees, and time-value back from whatever douche is trying to pull a fast one.

^-.-^

[One-Fang]

He's even got evidence he owns the place and she rents it - historical evidence. If she were to no-show, it would look very bad for her and a judge would most likely rule in his favour. I mean, how would the judge even know about the recent sale if she's not there to prove it?

I say ignore him completely and if he gets a court date, move hell and high water to go - with the mortgage and sale documentation, and the countersuit for loss of income, wasted time, etc.

[Aethian]

I didn't get to talk to her today but I think he was planning to do exactly what you said One-Fang. It just gets me...this has got to be illegal.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm fairly certain that filing forms with lies is illegal in pretty much every jurisdiction.

You just have to prove the truth, however.

^-.-^

[scruff]

I suppose it is possible the Landlord is a disorganised muppet/has more than one house and has forgotten that he's sold that one. Bit of a long shot though.

[Astrokitty]

Buh

Good grief!

If she needs help with a lawyer or getting details on the applicable laws, she can contact HUD at www.hud.gov The Department of Housing and Urban Development has lots of info on buying, selling, renting, etc. (If you're not in the US, I apologize!)

Good luck to her on that matter. This reminds me of some landlord stories I should post, hehe.

[Hyndis]

The person will definitely have to respond to the court papers at least. If they are completely ignored then she loses by default.

It sounds like her case would be absurdly easy to win. Just show the deed to the property, the date on the deed transfer, and the dates that the former owner claims he was not paid. Any judge will then laugh that case right out of court.

[protege]

If she has a mortgage, there's definitely a paper trail. When I bought my place in 2006, I got quite a bit of paperwork to play with. In fact, looking through the file, we have things like...

Standard Agreement for the Sale of Real Estate
the home inspection report
Final sewer and water affidavit (basically says that the prior owner has paid the bills)
Property tax listing (lists all property taxes, and who has paid them)
Letters from mortgage company
WPML seller disclosure statement (basically says that the property listing is accurate)
Good Faith Estimate (lists all the costs involved with taking out the mortgage)
Statement of estimated costs to buyer at settlement (this is a list of closing costs)
Survey plan (diagram of the property--how far it sits from the street, building measurements, etc.)
Home insurance information
Correspondence with the bank, about the money I had to transfer
Bills for furnace repairs (which were handled by the seller)
Copies of the property listing
Escrow statements
Settlement statement
W9 (which is a *federal* document
...then there are the various documents filed with the county for the deed transfer to my name...

What I'm trying to say is, that the guy is trying to pull a fast one. If things were done correctly (and all the crap I just listed has been filed properly), he'll get tossed out on his ass.