All Forum Posts by: Mike Jones

Looking to buy a lot and build a house in Rosarito, Mexico.  Looking for a reputable architect / builder.  Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Thank you Greg and Colin. That's great advice. The occupant isn't a tenant. He's the former owner and we purchased it at auction. He's pissed off and uncooperative. I think showing up at the next board meeting with an attorney letter is probably the best remedy. Next meeting is August 27th. I'll post an update with the outcome 

Our group has been purchasing foreclosures at trustee sales for over 10 years and we've never run into anything quite like this. We're trying to evict the former owner, but due to the current COVID eviction moratorium we can't even begin the process. He has stopped maintaining the lawn and last month the HOA charged us a $300 fine for non-compliance for "failure to mow the weeds". We explained the situation to the property management company who in turn forwarded it to the HOA before their recent monthly meeting. Our request for leniency was denied and they charged us an additional $300 for this month. Today I just received a letter saying that beginning next month they will continue to charge $300 per month, plus $75 PER DAY until the weeds are remediated. Legally we can't step foot on the property or hire anyone to take care of the issue until he's evicted. Has anyone run into this before? It's a lower end starter neighborhood and many neighbors aren't maintaining their yards. I feel like the HOA is just trying to recoup the dues the former owner didn't pay. At $75 per day plus $300 per month the fines will be over $2500 per month because we can't mow a small patch of grass! And with COVID there's no end in sight of an eviction date. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Well that has me re-thinking this again....that's exactly along the lines of what my title rep was saying.  

Thank you Darius and Ron for the replies.  Like you Ron I hadn't heard of that either.  Haven't been doing it as long as you (about 11 years) but it was my title rep that told me that (I said title officer in my original post in error).  He said there was a recent court decision and the title company had to pay the claim.  I just called my title officer for clarification and he confirmed the lien should be wiped as long as it was recorded after the 1st TD.  Sounds like my title rep might have been confused about the details.  The case probably wasn't related to a trustee sale.  

Recently my title officer told me to look out for child support liens as they no longer get cleared after foreclosure.  Apparently it doesn't matter if the lien is filed after the recording to the 1st TD (like property taxes or IRS liens).  Has anyone experienced this recently and what was the outcome?  I wonder if this is only specific to my title company.  If the kid is 3 years old he claims I could be on the hook for 15 years of child support payments if the supporting parent doesn't pay up.....talk about a nightmare!

Thank you Steve and Tom.  Viviant was the installer and they monitor the system.  It appears they've remotely shut down the panels as they haven't been producing for the last month.  Viviant has assigned a case number with their foreclosure department, although I wonder how involved they'll get since they were paid and Mosaic is who filed the UCC.  Hopefully they can assist as you suggested Steve....or at least put me in touch with someone at Mosaic who has a higher level of authority to get this resolved.  It's a large 10.36kw system to the tune of $45k on a 1200 sq ft house.  I doubt many buyers out there that are going to want to assume that loan.  I'm making calls to lenders to see if they'll issue a mortgage with the UCC filing in place. I'm hoping the foreclosure will satisfy an underwriter.

Thank you for the response Tom. Ultimately it would be nice to give the buyer the option, but I ran it past my loan broker and he said he couldn't finance it unless the filing was removed. Maybe there are other lenders that will. I agree that the UCC is only a fixture filing, but lenders here in CA can be really conservative. I'll check with some direct lenders and provide an update.

Purchased a house at trustee sale. Former foreclosed owner financed a solar system with Solar Mosaic. They're refusing to remove the UCC filing. We told them to remove the panels and release the filing so we can clear title and sell the house. Of course that's the only leverage they have and they know used panels are practically worthless. Anyone out there have experience with this? Last year I had a similar situation with solar city and they were very cooperative. Solar Mosaic won't even return calls.