All Forum Posts by: Verna Medlin

 There was no closing. No title insurance. 

The "buyer" has collected thousands of dollars in rental income since him and the ex signed a paper agreeing to the sale. There was never a transfer of the deed to the "buyer". 

Imagine this scenario. 

1. You own a rental house.

2. You are tired of dealing with renters and repairs.

3. You tell your friend you'll sell him the house with owner financing and walk away. 

4. You & your friend write up a deal between the two of you, hiding this deal from the wife who is on the deed with you.  

5. Wife had no intention of selling the rental house as it is an investment to supplement retirement, eventually being her childs inheritance.  

6. You tell your wife that you have a good property manager taking care of the rental so nothing to worry about. 

7. You and wife get a divorce and you give her the house in the settlement. 

8. Wife totally is happy to keep the property manager in place since she lives several states away.

9. "Buyer" has been collecting rent for a few years, sending wife a set amount of said rental income, keeping the rest for himself. 

10. A few years later wife is passing thru the area and drops by to check out the house. This is when the current renter informs wife that THEY are buying the house from the owner (who is the property manager!)

11. Wife talks to property manager who informs her that he bought the house on payments from her husband before the divorce. 

12. Wife is shocked and mad that she was lied to, that this "deal" was done years ago behind her back and the supposed property manager has allowed the house to severely deteriorate to less than half its value.

So now what does wife do when she can't afford to hire a lawyer to straighten out the mess? 

 Are you telling me that I have to let the "buyer" pocket thousands of dollars of rental income plus refund all the rental money they forwarded to me?  That sounds like total theft of all the rental income that should be mine.  This has been going on for 6 years!  That is thousands and thousands of dollars he's pocketed, he "sold" the house at least once, tried to sell off some of the land. This is a huge mess. 

 I did not sell the house. It was the "buyer" and my ex who did a seller financed sale behind my back. Shouldn't that be illegal. How can it be sold behind my back when my name is on the deed?  The original deed was husbands name AND wife name not husband OR wife. Doesn't that require BOTH signatures to sell? 

Thank you all for the advice. I'm not sure how I will go about doing it but somehow I will find a way to protect my investment. If nothing else, maybe a lawyer would take a percentage of ownership in the property as payment for getting this all straightened out. Then I could pay it off over time to regain my full ownership in the future. 

This is going to sound like a bad soap opera, but here goes...

What happens if you have a property sold on seller financing and the buyer uses it as a rental. BUT... the buyer turns out to be a slumlord who is allowing the property to deteriorate so bad that the house will soon be unlivable?  (Broken windows, heater broken, leaking water pipes, electrical problems, holes in walls, rotting porch, among other damages.)

The buyer continues to make payments, but if they stop then you have a ton of repairs before you can rent out the house. And I have the disadvantage of living in another state. 

So my question is How do you handle a situation when it's obvious that the buyer is not keeping the maintenance up on the property?

I wanted to foreclose a couple years ago but was told I can't foreclose as long as payments are being made. Is damages a reason to foreclose? How about constantly late payments? (only 2 or 3 weeks late, not accumulated months.)  Behind on property tax? (almost lost it to a tax sale because the buyer did not pay the property tax for 3 years!)

The house is in Missouri. The deed is in my name. My ex made this contract behind my back when we were negotiating a divorce, (he knew I was getting the property in the divorce). I never signed the contract (my name was on the deed at the time). The contract is for less than half the value of the home at the time it was signed (I'm pretty sure ex did that on purpose in retaliation for me winning the house in the divorce).  Am I still obligated to honor that contract? I was under the impression that the "buyer" was a property manager until last week when I found out he has this contract and is claiming to own the house.

I know this is a lot and I need to see a real estate / contract lawyer, but I simply can't afford to go that route. I'm in my 70s living on social security income plus the small property payments I'm getting on the house. (No sympathy please, this is simply the facts.)

Oh, and the current tenant in the house thinks they are buying it from the buyer. AND my buyer tried to sell of part of the lot for cash. (no idea how he intended to supply a deed for that!) That is also a problem that needs to be dealt with. In addition, the "buyer" is the county sheriff so in essence, I'm fighting a battle with a local cop while I'm the outsider! 

I know this sounds unreal, but I swear, every word is solid gold true.