All Forum Posts by: Tom Gimer

@Jay Hinrichs We essentially have an in-house abstractor (Salt Abstracts — MD; M&M — DC), so when I REALLY need it I can have title in ~1 hour.

I try not to be that demanding often but it’s a nice resource to have access to.

Quote from @Melanie P.:

I would reply to his threat of going legal with the final punchlist you're requiring to release final payment. Then if he goes to court you have something to discussed. "Not satisfied," isn't going to cut it. First, you do have a contract, the spreadsheet which you both shared, agreed to, performed work and received payments under, etc. - that IS a contract. Second, there's a legal concept called "unjust enrichment." I think that part is self explanatory. 

Unjust enrichment is an equitable remedy. The existence of a contract -- I agree with you on this -- may be a complete defense to such a claim. 

Oops I didn't follow the lien laws so I'm going to sue for unjust enrichment is not a likely winner.

Again, without knowing where this property is located, this whole discussion is kinda pointless.

@Marc Shin You need to provide the location of the property.

Mechanics liens laws are state-specific with respect to contract and notice requirements, license status, dollar amount thresholds, and especially TIMING. Nobody can answer your question as-is.

The contractor may have zero to stand on here.

@Dave Hart A release would not be recorded until the note is paid in full. 

In a perfect world an assignment (like @Chris Seveney suggested) would be recorded with each transfer of the note but in reality that does not occur. Lenders fail, go out of business, merge, etc. Yes, this creates problems for title companies and title insurers to resolve. 

@Jordan Sachs This is 100% a state law issue... developed through court cases over time. There are rules and exceptions to the rules -- it's actually pretty interesting if you take the time to research it. You'll be surprised how many cases there have been and how the law has developed.

Do a quick search for Pennsylvania tree laws or Pennsylvania tree liability and you'll see what I'm talking about.

A smart seller will have note, deed of trust/mortgage/etc. prepared by a local real estate attorney (yes, he/she may work with/at the title company) and be sure the security instrument is properly recorded in the land records. 

If you're the buyer, you don't sell the note. That's would be a decision the seller/lender could make. 

If you want to sell your interest after closing, it would be the property itself. Now, if the deal is so sweet that someone may want to step into your shoes prior to closing for a large fee, make the contract including the seller financing terms freely assignable and ironclad.

Good luck.

Perhaps @Ned Carey will chime in but IMO the valuation should have occurred prior to bidding. The tax certificate will expire, so if you never start the foreclosure process what was the point of purchasing the lien? Since the owner needs to pay your attorneys fees (essentially limited by statute, so can be estimated) in connection with a redemption, all of that math should be part of the planning. Also title to figure out if the land can even be used for a particular purpose.

But to answer your question regarding value, a decent metric is the current tax assessed value of the parcel:

https://sdat.dat.maryland.gov/RealProperty/Pages/default.asp...

Or you could pay for a broker price opinion..

@Godsheritage Adeoye And for anyone else considering this... in Baltimore City you need a current lien certificate to record a deed. That certificate would show open taxes, water, housing violations, citations, condemnations, receiverships, construction liens and other municipal liens. Unless those items are all satisfied (except for housing violations and some non-monetary liens which follow the property), the department of finance will not allow the deed to pass through to the next stop in the recording process.

So even if you wanted to dump a property that was totally upside down with liens to someone who was willing to take it from you, you can't do it. It's insane. The property either has to go through the tax sale process, receivership, or some other program (donation, etc.) to have the liens abated. 

What that lien cert would not show you, however, are open mortgages, judgment liens, tax liens, other non-municipal liens, pending litigation, and the like. So if I was dealing with a seller who was insisting on handling the transfer this way, I would be wondering what the seller is trying to hide... and I would figure it out.

Quote from @Charlie MacPherson:

Thanks, Tom.

Do you think that can be done retroactively?  Years after the first spouse signed?

Yes.

I know nothing about ME law specifically but I assume that can be done in accordance with local customs… Either by obtaining a court-certified copy of the original easement and re-recording it with all of the required signatures OR recording a confirmatory deed of easement which spells out the error and corrects it by including everyone who should have signed the original. 

If the missing spouse has since passed away his or her legal representative (PR, Executor, etc.) could sign. 

@Charlie MacPherson Unless all affected owners agreed to the easement, the agreement is a nullity. 

In this case is doesn't matter how the owners held title... T/C, J/T, TbyE, the solution is the same... and the solution is to get the missing owner(s) to sign the easement agreement.