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You knew there was a 1-year mechanics lean on the property before making your offer. Therefore, you accepted the risk that a potential third-party situation could interfere with the sale. Regardless of what the seller agrees to, the person holding the lien must agree to clear the lien must agree to drop it, before your sale can be finalized.
It's understandable that you are upset the sale has not gone as you hoped it would, but, that's part of the risk you accepted.
Not necessarily. Depends on the contract. Being told there is currently a mechanics lien on the property is disclosure; however, if the contract also says that the seller will provide a clean and marketable title to the property, then that's misleading. A marketable title means no liens on the property, and implies the seller will clear the liens prior to closing. If seller was never willing to clear the lien, then he does NOT have a marketable title, and was not acting in good faith.
UPDATE: You guys called it! Seller comes back and says that he now needs at least 30 days to close. Issue is no longer the lien. He will pay lien at closing. No explanation for the change of heart. Issue is now paperwork related. There is some document that the deceased owner (this is an estate sale) did not have recorded before he passed, and now they have to start over with probate. That makes no sense. How do you almost get to the closing table, without realizing you haven't cleared probate. My suspicion is that he is using this time to contest the lien. We're through, and advised our agent of such.
Agent comes back and says he has offered to do one of the repairs we had identified during previous negotiations (before we made the all cash "as is" offer) and that the price "will be different" when he puts it back on the market. I think this is his attempt at "sweetening the pot." Are you kidding me?!?! No one needs a house this bad.
UPDATE: You guys called it! Seller comes back and says that he now needs at least 30 days to close. Issue is no longer the lien. He will pay lien at closing. No explanation for the change of heart. Issue is now paperwork related. There is some document that the deceased owner (this is an estate sale) did not have recorded before he passed, and now they have to start over with probate. That makes no sense. How do you almost get to the closing table, without realizing you haven't cleared probate. My suspicion is that he is using this time to contest the lien. We're through, and advised our agent of such.
Agent comes back and says he has offered to do one of the repairs we had identified during previous negotiations (before we made the all cash "as is" offer) and that the price "will be different" when he puts it back on the market. I think this is his attempt at "sweetening the pot." Are you kidding me?!?! No one needs a house this bad.
I bet his agent is ready to kill him. Anyway, I still would love to know what the $15K lien was for....but regardless, you dodged a bullet!
It is very common to list encumbered properties.
The contract should indicate that all liens will be cleared prior to closing.
A mortgage is a lien, for example.
A furnace or AC unit with a loan financed through a utility company is a common lien
The seller is just playing stupid games, from the OP's description.
Usually the mechanics lien expires after a year (must be renewed) so I first thought he was trying to delay the closing to let the lien expire.
I had a lien on a property once, title company called to get the payoff and I never heard from them again (or got a check). So I look online and the owner got a 1mm mortgage on the property and I called to ask the title company how he did that without paying the lien? They said he delayed the refi 2 weeks, lien expired and he then got the loan.
Guy was a sleazy lawyer so it didn't surprise me at all. About 10 years later he hung himself in the garage after a divorce, couple DUI arrests and finally he got disbarred for offering legal services in trade for sex. The woman he was offering his "services" to was a local tv reporter......needless to say she had a story to tell on air and it didn't go well for him!
I’m glad you put your foot down. People are crazy.
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