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I have some properties i inherited and decided to sell them. Too much work, repairs, too far from where I live, etc. I contacted a few investors & got some offers. I picked one, he sent the purchase agreement & I signed. Turns out, it was one of those wholesale companies which I didn't know. Not that it really matters I guess. I told my ex husband what I was doing(he lives in one of the properties). Theres no lease with me but he claims he signed a long term one with my deceased father. I told the investor that my ex wasn't inclined to leave. Investor wasn't worried, said they'd dealt with it plenty of times & had never had to go to court. They don't know my ex. The other investors that went out to look at the property were not allowed to get inside & told to leave. I'm 2 hrs away, work 2 jobs & to make matters worse a buddy told my ex to get a restraining order on me to keep me away from own property. How is that even legal? My biggest concern is when this buyer assigns the agreement(and thats what they do to make their money) he might not tell the new investor what's going on. This will all be the new owners problem. My only concern: ending up in legal hot water somehow. Honestly, I didn't know this is how, "buy houses with no money meant." I'm an idiot, I thought all investors got the money from somewhere(basic house flipper). First, what can I do legally to allow inspectors, etc. inside since I'm barred from the property? I don't have anyone willing to get in the mix. Second, it would be better if ex was out but how do I get him out? I have no idea if this lease with my Dad is valid. If so, it will be the new owners problem. Even if it isn't, there's no way I know for the court to authenticate it. According to my ex, it wasn't notarized but does have 2 witness signatures(they both live out of state now). If God forbid this deal falls through where would I start on authenticating the document? The state is NC. My buyer hasn't went to look at the property yet. Don't know if they will. I have to send pictures. I have old ones from a couple of yrs ago. Thanks in advance.
First thing I would ask the ex to do is produce a signed long term lease signed by your father and him. If he can’t produce it simply follow your states guidelines to terminate what is most likely a verbal lease. Until he produces this wonder lease he’s basically on a verbal agreement.
I would hire a attorney to deal with the ex. If you didn’t hate him before...this ought to do it
First thing I would ask the ex to do is produce a signed long term lease signed by your father and him. If he can’t produce it simply follow your states guidelines to terminate what is most likely a verbal lease. Until he produces this wonder lease he’s basically on a verbal agreement.
I would hire a attorney to deal with the ex. If you didn’t hate him before...this ought to do it
If you have been following this whole thread, you would have read that the OP has read both the lease and the prepaid rent receipt, and that they were signed by her father. It is not a verbal agreement, but a fully signed and executed lease and is prepaid for the entire length of the lease, and she has seen the documents that prove it.
Yes according to the OP who has seen and has apparently gotten copies, the lease and rent receipt prove it is a true lease, and the rent required in the lease has been prepaid for the entire length of the lease. It is not a verbal lease, but a solid lease witnessed by two people, and the rent has been prepaid. As the rent is prepaid for the entire length of the lease, alone is very important in legal circles.
Her ex has control of the property for the length of the lease, period.
Prepaid leases at a discounted rent for a period of time, are quite common in investment real estate. It is a way for the owner to raise immediate cash.
As her father was very elderly needing a caregiver to take care of certain of his needs, and wanted some cash, he made a deal with her ex to provide the caregiving during his remaining life, and got some cash to use for his personal living expenses. And the ex's occupancy is guaranteed for the remaining term of the lease, due to the lease and prepayment and caregiving duties the ex performed, which met the fathers needs. Fulfilling the care giving duties as he apparently did, strengthens the ex's position.
The OP is not happy, about the ex having the lease, but it is just something she has to live with and work around. The OP was not assisting her father with his needs, and was not giving him money to live on, so he took another LEGAL path to meet his needs. Now the OP has to live with the moves he felt he had to make to survive.
OP said she has seen it and recognizes her father's signature on it, along with a receipt showing rent paid in full. As to whether it's still valid after fathers passing that's definitely where the lawyer comes in.
I mostly agree with presenting this to the buyer/investor, and if they choose to continue then it's their problem to deal with. A lawyer's counsel will be good for your own protection though. Make sure there aren't any gotchas that could get you in hot water.
The buyer/investor is probably used to doing "cash for keys" where the person is squatting or maybe has a 1yr lease. So offering say $5k to get them out tends to work. Might not be that easy in this case. You'd have to pay me a lot to walk away from several decades of prepaid rent. This is where the validity of the lease could be the make or break factor.
Ah! I didn't see that. Thanks. the post below that where the buyer says 'don't worry about it we do this all the time' Sounds like good advice. The property has been sold and is now thenew owners problem.
Ah! I didn't see that. Thanks. the post below that where the buyer says 'don't worry about it we do this all the time' Sounds like good advice. The property has been sold and is now thenew owners problem.
The property hasn't been sold yet. It's not sold until it closes.
If you have been following this whole thread, you would have read that the OP has read both the lease and the prepaid rent receipt, and that they were signed by her father. It is not a verbal agreement, but a fully signed and executed lease and is prepaid for the entire length of the lease, and she has seen the documents that prove it.
Yes according to the OP who has seen and has apparently gotten copies, the lease and rent receipt prove it is a true lease, and the rent required in the lease has been prepaid for the entire length of the lease. It is not a verbal lease, but a solid lease witnessed by two people, and the rent has been prepaid. As the rent is prepaid for the entire length of the lease, alone is very important in legal circles.
Her ex has control of the property for the length of the lease, period.
Prepaid leases at a discounted rent for a period of time, are quite common in investment real estate. It is a way for the owner to raise immediate cash.
As her father was very elderly needing a caregiver to take care of certain of his needs, and wanted some cash, he made a deal with her ex to provide the caregiving during his remaining life, and got some cash to use for his personal living expenses. And the ex's occupancy is guaranteed for the remaining term of the lease, due to the lease and prepayment and caregiving duties the ex performed, which met the fathers needs. Fulfilling the care giving duties as he apparently did, strengthens the ex's position.
The OP is not happy, about the ex having the lease, but it is just something she has to live with and work around. The OP was not assisting her father with his needs, and was not giving him money to live on, so he took another LEGAL path to meet his needs. Now the OP has to live with the moves he felt he had to make to survive.
That may turn out to be the case, but no one here can say that definitively.
No one here has read the lease. No one has verified whether the paid receipt is legitimate or whether payment was actually made and received. No one knows whether the father was legally competent to enter into the contract or whether he might have had dementia or some other disability, even a temporary one. No one seems to know whether there might be a provision in state law which would affect such a contract made be a decedent. No one here knows whether there is case law which might set a precedent to overturn such a contract, which a court might find unreasonable on its face. (Similar lease agreements have already been overturned by the courts in some jurisdictions.) No one really knows whether the ex used undue influence to obtain the lease. There are so many unknown factors involved that no online pundit, even a lawyer, can state anything with certainty relative to this case.
It seems unlikely that it was the father who proposed this lease arrangement. If he was of sound mind and truly wanted the ex to have the house, why didn't he just deed the house to the ex? That would have been the simplest thing to do. Was this a ploy by the ex whereby he thought that it would saddle the OP with the property taxes, while he essentially could live there for free? Who knows?
Nonetheless, the OP stated that her primary concern was whether this might cause her legal problems down the road. There have been a number of good suggestions made here in that regard. All of them point to getting legal counsel.
The property hasn't been sold yet. It's not sold until it closes.
Okay. But she informed the buyer about the current lease and they said 'not a problem'. I think she can proceed with a clean conscience. I would document that I had informed the buyer about the lease.
Has anyone considered, that the buyers buying the bundle of homes at a discount may have gotten a price, they could give away the OP home with a lease and still make enough money to make it worth while buying the homes.
I was an investment real estate broker, from 1971 until I finally retired, and have done a lot of transactions that are far from normal, that the vast majority on this thread would never even dream could be done. I handled investors more like a stock broker, etc., buying, selling, and exchanging real estate for my stable of investors over and over.
I have been involved in transactions where we took over several properties, and would not have worried about the property with the lease. In some cases, we could afford to give one of the properties away, and still make considerable money.
We have a lot of people on this thread with no knowledge of real estate and lease law, trying to figure out how to beat the lease. The OP has seen and apparently has copies of lease and pre payment receipt, and accepts they were signed by her father. She has accepted they are valid. But the suggestions are still coming right and left even from House sales people, that there has to be a way to throw out the lease. They are not accepting that a lease especially when prepaid as in this case, goes to the end of the lease, no matter how many owners the property passes through.
After reading that, I'm not sure how you're even a RE agent..
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just_because you are unsure, you might benefit from reading up on the topic a bit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackmichigan
Even though you are new, after reading that--along with some of your other posts--I'm not sure that I would say "Welcome to CD".
LOL
He's been "unwelcomed" under a few pen names.
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