Posted by B.L.Renfrow on July 02, 2003 at 23:26:26:
Your sellers have breached their contract and may be guilty of fraud or theft if they have taken the money which was supposed to be paid to someone else and failed to pay it.
You should consult with your own attorney at once to see what your options are here. Assuming you have a valid contract and you have upheld your end, you may well be entitled to force them to honor their agreement, or compensate you financially if they have failed to do so.
The sellers may – probably do – believe you’ll simply roll over and give up. Don’t do that unless you determine it’s in your best interest to do so. Sometimes all it takes is a strongly-worded letter from your lawyer to the miscreants to get them to shape up. Most of what lawyers do is bluffing, and they are very good at it.
I Entered into a “Lease with Option to Purchase” I find out the “sellers” have not been submitting our payments to the HOA and now we are in “Default”.
We have tried to work with the Sellers even offered to pay up arrearages provided they surrender Title and payment books and remainder balance will still be paid to them.
They refuse, they said they found another buyer and want to release us from our contract so they may sell.
Time is a factor here, what should I do?
How much is your option price? What is the property currently worth?
They have breached their contract and may be quilty of equity skimming. And now rather than take the opportunity to cure their breach, they want to let you out of the contract so they can sell to someone else.
What would it take for you to agree to cancel your contract? $5k? $10k? $25k? $50k? Money talks, BS walks!
So pick an amount that would satisfy you to walk away, if there is any amount, and agree to settle or threaten to sue if they don’t cure the default.
Next time, NEVER send any payments to the seller. ALWAYS send the payments to the lender and HOA directly. Then if your rent is more than that, send the remainder to the seller. This way you don’t run into these problems. If a seller refuses then don’t do the deal, period!