Posted by Rick Edson on April 07, 2002 at 21:43:24:
It does not seem to matter if one is right or wrong in this ‘protect the consumer’ based legal system. The legal fees for proving I am right will cost $20-40K and if the jury feels that I am a bad ole real estate swendiler that is taking advantage of this poor ignorant buyer than I pay triple $400K. So the worst case scenario seems to be settling for something like the previous sellers did just to make the lawyer and scum bag buyer go away…$30K. For the time being I am going to continue to try and convince the lawyer that there is no money in my direction/no insurance/no assets and probably get lucky with spending only $10k on my lawyer. IF I AM LUCKY! There has got to be a better way of repeling these guys, I can not afford to resell fixed up homes to consumers at a price that assumes 1 out of 10 will sue. And this ratio will get worse if they continue to succeed. Maybe some of the legal seminar guys will come up with a proactive solution other than the shell game of hiding ones assets that is easily defeated in discovery…(CORP,Land Trusts, Limited Liability Trusts, etc.)
Discouraging buyers from sueing after the sale? - Posted by Rick Edson
Posted by Rick Edson on April 04, 2002 at 08:49:35:
With all the forms filled in properly and disclosures signed, it is still possible for a buyer to sue for deceptive trade practices even 2 years after the sale.
This buyer has found a lawyer to work for very little money to put together bids on how to make the home better and is sending me letters demanding $100K+. There has to be some way of reducing these frivolis suits! Please advise.
Discouraging buyers from sueing after the sale? - Posted by Rick Edson
Posted by Rick Edson on April 07, 2002 at 09:32:36:
I fix up a house, buyer gets it inspected and accepts home. 2 years later sues seller(me), his realtor and his inspector for repair estimates gathered from various companies (plumbers,foundation,pest,pool ect.) totaling more than the sales price of the home. Apparantly they have a lawyer that is looking to scare some insurance money out of one of us. Most of us are balking yet the cost of having our lawyer balk via letters and phone time is over $2K already. Now they want to mediate ie make our lawyer charge us more! We will agree to mediate as per the contract but the others will not.The buyer was successfull in doing this to the owner of the home they purchased before ours to the tune of $30K. We of course will probably pay to avoid suit even though we are NOT guilty of anything other than selling him a home that we had repaired using licensed and garanteed contractors. There outta be a law against this type of predatory legal robbery! How can I make him pay more than me? How can we discourage ambulance chaseing lawyer behavior like this?
It’s probably too late on this one, but, for the future, you ought to follow some of the strategies outlined in Bill Bronchicks book, “The ABC’s of Asset Protection”. I just bought it, and there are many very creative and imaginative ways to set yourself up.
Good luck!
