Posted on 03/22/2021 7:04:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Yep, I'd have to blame their legal counsel on this one.
Suggested additions:
Search the Country Records for everything that you can find re the property - particularly survey lines and long-lasting markers (as in, no wood). If you suspect that you have any need for a surveyor to look over something, hire a surveyor to accompany you to the site, and consult with your surveyor.
Inspect the property - the inspector you hire, go with that inspector and inspect *everything* and TEST *everything.*
All that, before making any bid/offer.
The laws in the District of Columba are equally as favorable to tenants, including tenants at sufferance, commonly known as squatters. I knew a developer/speculator in the ‘90s who had an effective way of dealing with the broken legal system in D.C. when it came to this. He would purchase run down, often abandoned property, and the first thing he would do is go there. He told me what he would find was like lifting up a rock. He was a huge back man, with lots of help, who he would immediately task with cleaning absolutely everything out of the building. When I asked him about how he handled the tenants, he just shrugged and said “What tenants?”
Thing is they aren’t tenants. Where’s the rental contract? They’re nothing but trespassers. There are ways to make them leave.
Years ago, my husband and I were looking for a house. We found an absolutely beautiful property and met the realtor there. When we pulled up a homeless man came up to our car and knocked on the window and my husband rolled it down to talk to him. He had a huge afro that was packed under a knit cap that was almost the size of his head and you could smell his BO from inside the truck. It turns out, it was the owner’s brother and one of the stipulations in purchasing the home was that he was able to continue to live in the ramshackle shed on the edge of the property. Hell no. We drove off without even looking at the house.
Last June, I went through nearly the identical situation but as an investor (fix ‘n’ flips). It’s too long of a story to share here, but essentially we waited until the tenant left the property and then entered and changed all the locks. He tried breaking back in, but we managed to get an alarm system installed before too long. His attorney called our attorney and claimed “illegal eviction”. Our attorney said back “yeah, you might have a case, but we believe your client has bigger problems that we’ll surely address”. The sociopath dropped his attorney but kept trying to break in. The cops were on our side each time, and a portion of our situation even made the news and was posted here on FreeRepublic, as the Aurora Colorado police leaders began resigning due to the pc politics of COVID and in general. Anyway, we strong armed the squatter but won in the final lawsuit. Successfully collecting will be the next chapter to this story.
So void the sale for fraud !
It’s not just California. We’re in Florida and have been looking at homes to buy. There is a warning about eviction, and this has been true even before Covid restrictions. If you buy real estate, there is a warning that the seller is not responsible for the eviction of the tenant, I don’t know how they treat the seller of the property.
But the Covid restrictions that you couldn’t evict a person during the Covid time applied to the entire nation. Lots of landlords got “burned.” I don’t know if they’ve rescinded that rule yet.
But we have know several cases of people buying property and then having to go through the eviction process, and sometimes that doesn’t even work, in order to take control of their property. This even applies to property purchased from the county in an auction, property that the county had foreclosed due to back taxes.
https://www.nolo.com/evictions-ban
I was nearly in this same situation while purchasing a house.
The seller had regained the property after a prior sale due to default on the part of the previous owner. Unknown to the seller, the previous owner had taken out a third mortgage that showed up during the title search.
Having to pay off that mortgage in order to deliver title to me would have wiped out the seller’s equity. The seller threatened to simply squat in the property.
Lucky me.
Our local junior college teaches a real estate course. I purchased the textbook and schooled myself over a single weekend, The facts may vary from one jurisdiction to another, but here is what I learned.
First, conveying “title” includes conveying the right of possession. If there is no tenant, then the new owner has right of possession. The signature of the seller is his agreement to give up possession.
Second, title legally passes when the seller has provided a signed deed to the buyer or his representative. This complicated things because this meant that I was already the owner of the property legally. I could not unilaterally declare myself not to be the owner. It was my property despite any legal entanglements.
Third, I had decided that the posters above were correct. I intended to get help from a friend who was a very nice guy and built like a professional wrestler. He would move me in and the owner out. If the owner called the sheriff I would show the deed with the seller’s signature.
Fortunately for all involved, the holder of the third mortgage agreed to settle for $1000. The property was “over-encumbered”, meaning that there was insufficient value to pay off the debts. I suspect that the third mortgage was fraudulently obtained to provide a down payment so there were people somewhere who didn’t want this looked into.
I ended up directing my agent, prior to recording the deed, to take possession of the property, verify that nothing remained that belonged to the seller, and change all the locks.
All of the above just to own a vacation home.
Why not have the utilities disconnected and have the post office temporaraly stop delivering mail to the address and remove the numbers from the mail box.
The utility companies mey hesitate to cut off service to an occupied residence, especially if the squatter was paying.
Signing a document to re-direct somebody else’s mail might not be legal.
Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if the average mail carrier wouldn’t even realize the numbers missing from a single box for weeks if ever.
“The first major winter storm and he stopped by and threw a brick through the picture window and shut off the gas. Said it broke his heart to smash the window.
I suspect you’d get arrested nowadays for that.”
Not only arrested but possibly a defendant in a multi-thousand dollar lawsuit. I don’t think people understand how many rights tenants, or even possessors of property have. Intimidation would probably work 90% of the time, but that 10% would ruin your life. The movie “Pacific Heights” wasn’t that far out of reality.
The left wants the collectivity to own all property. That way you work all your life for nothing.
As owners, it sounds like it’s time to start renovations, starting with removing the front door and first floor windows.
If they went through an escrow service, the property would have had final inspection prior to dispersing the funds. Sounds like they tried to save a few bucks, and are paying the price.
Want to get rid of unwelcome “guests”?
Turn off the water.
The contract of sale should have contained a vacancy clause, stating that the property would be vacant at the time of settlement. You do a walkthrough inspection on closing day. If it’s not, you don’t close.
Forget landlord/tenant laws, why aren’t they pursuing fraud??? Failure to convey?
Original owner refuses to leave.
Must be a lawyer or related to one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.