Looking for some advice on a lien on a property we are trying to buy.
Date: Thu, 07/30/2009 - 12:14
Hello,
In a bit of a housing crisis and was wondering if some people have some advice on this one.
So we sell our house, closing goes smooth, all is fine, with that closing we are homeless.
Anyway in the mean time we find a short sale, put in an offer, get it accepted, get the sellers bank to approve the short sale, get our ducks in a row with financing, all is set to go, and ...
The morning of the closing our bank finds out there is a $47K credit card judgement against the seller, along with a wage garnishment, and lien against the property that no one had noticed. Our bank only ran the title search that morning??? Anyway, turns out that the seller had not informed the her attorney who is handling the sale of the lien, only the garnishment, her attorney never checked the public records?, her realtor never checked the public records? A bunch of people failed at there due diligence.
So anyway, our lawyer is talking to her lawyer and the credit cards lawyer and it looks like the credit card lawyer will not release the lien unless "we" pony up $40K. You can stop laughing at that one.
So what will most likely happen now is this will fall through (after the 30 days for the seller to produce a clean title fails), the bank will foreclose, and the credit card company will get zippo out of the property.
In the meantime we are homeless, have to wait 30 days for the seller to fail to produce a clean title, and then spend another 30 days make an offer on and close a different property (assuming we find one) while our stuff sits in storage and we have to find and pay for temporary housing (did I mention the 80 lbs dog).
So any advice to force the credit card companies hands? They have garnished the sellers wages and will get there money regardless. Only people being hurt here are us (who have unplanned temporary housing, moving, and storage costs) the buyers, the selling realtor who has some contractors on the hook for $10K for needed repairs to sell it (part of the HUD), and the bank (Who now has to foreclose).
Is there some token amount they might accept to release the lien (much less than $40K).
In a bit of a housing crisis and was wondering if some people have some advice on this one.
So we sell our house, closing goes smooth, all is fine, with that closing we are homeless.
Anyway in the mean time we find a short sale, put in an offer, get it accepted, get the sellers bank to approve the short sale, get our ducks in a row with financing, all is set to go, and ...
The morning of the closing our bank finds out there is a $47K credit card judgement against the seller, along with a wage garnishment, and lien against the property that no one had noticed. Our bank only ran the title search that morning??? Anyway, turns out that the seller had not informed the her attorney who is handling the sale of the lien, only the garnishment, her attorney never checked the public records?, her realtor never checked the public records? A bunch of people failed at there due diligence.
So anyway, our lawyer is talking to her lawyer and the credit cards lawyer and it looks like the credit card lawyer will not release the lien unless "we" pony up $40K. You can stop laughing at that one.
So what will most likely happen now is this will fall through (after the 30 days for the seller to produce a clean title fails), the bank will foreclose, and the credit card company will get zippo out of the property.
In the meantime we are homeless, have to wait 30 days for the seller to fail to produce a clean title, and then spend another 30 days make an offer on and close a different property (assuming we find one) while our stuff sits in storage and we have to find and pay for temporary housing (did I mention the 80 lbs dog).
So any advice to force the credit card companies hands? They have garnished the sellers wages and will get there money regardless. Only people being hurt here are us (who have unplanned temporary housing, moving, and storage costs) the buyers, the selling realtor who has some contractors on the hook for $10K for needed repairs to sell it (part of the HUD), and the bank (Who now has to foreclose).
Is there some token amount they might accept to release the lien (much less than $40K).
The laws vary state to state. I live in Texas. Here if its the s
The laws vary state to state. I live in Texas. Here if its the sellers homestead property, you can get the credit card company to partial release the homestead property from the lien without any payment, i've seen it done many times. But that's in Texas. I don't know about other states and their homestead laws.