Posted by Bill Plum on August 19, 2005 at 20:26:08:
Have the wife file contempt of court procedings against him for failing to adhere to the court order, and seek legal fees in the process. In most jurisdictions contempt in the family courts is at least quasi-criminal, and he could face jail time. When you show what he is trying to do to the courts I don’t think they are going to have a lot of mercy to grant him.
Lawsuit blues - Posted by Marc Donovan
Posted by Marc Donovan on August 19, 2005 at 20:07:08:
Latest update:
I bought a house subject-to, seller had a divorce settlement that ordered husband to deed to wife - he never did. I bought from wife, husband never signed deed and title insurance was purchased. Husband was never asked to sign a quit-claim by title company.
So, husband sees all the equity and wants to get some of it since he never deeded the property. He finds an ambulance chaser who takes the case on contingency. They sue my trust claiming he is still the owner since he never deeded the property. I notify my title insuror and they defend stating that he has no title based on six different arguments and they cross-claim for a deed from Mr Hubby.
First settlement offer from them was for us to re-finance and pay off his loan and pay his attorney $2,500. He admitted he did not have any title interest. My (title company’s) attorney said that he had a good case since he was still on the note and we were using/abusing his credit. I disagreed since he could have required his wife to refi and remove his interest in the divorce, we were paying all payments on time, and the suit was just claiming title interest - not damages for failure to pay off his loan. My attorney said that he would probably amend his complaint to claim damages from our not paying off his loan. Sounds to me like he was representing his title company and not me.
I said fine, I am ready to refi now anyway. So I countered that I would apply for a refi within 60 days, complete the refi within 6 months, title company must pay for a lenders policy, Plaintif will sign a quit-claim and drop the suit, I would not pay any of his expenses/fees but title company was free to pay whatever they want to cover these.
After three weeks, they counter with: refi complete within 60 days, they will drop and quit-claim at closing, title company will pay 2500 to Plaintiff’s attorney. My attorney added that they are talking about damages since the interest rates are going up, and he cannot get a loan without me paying off the old loan. He says he will not defend this without fee payments from me since it is not covered under the title insurance policy. The damage claim is bull, since he just needs to show the deed and its not counted against his credit. I believe this is just smoke and he probably never tried to apply for a loan.
My question is what do I do now?
My thoughts,
I want to refi anyway. I have about 50K I can cash out of this house. But I obviously cant get a loan while this case is pending - unless I can get the title company to write a lenders policy for the new loan.
My thought is if I start to refi, I can claim that I am trying to pay off the Plaintiff. The title company should be willing to insure title, since the case goes away leaving the Plaintiff with no plausible arguments for damages.
Im tempted to just tell them all to go pound sand. But Im afraid I will eventually wind up paying legal fees. I hate to play poker when I have no upside. An ambulance chaser and a broke Plaintiff are just not a fun crowd.
What would you do?
Marc.
Sorry so long…
Re: Lawsuit blues - Posted by rm
Posted by rm on August 20, 2005 at 22:01:52:
The claim that he can’t get a loan is probably bogus.
By providing documentation of the circumstances, his loan pkg should make it through underwriting.
Re: Lawsuit blues - Posted by Natalie-VA
Posted by Natalie-VA on August 20, 2005 at 20:15:19:
Marc,
I would counter agreeing to all his terms except that he has to compensate you for your refi costs.
–Natalie
Re: Lawsuit blues - Posted by JohnBoy
Posted by JohnBoy on August 20, 2005 at 24:27:48:
The way I see it, he was ordered to deed his interest to the wife…which he failed to do thereby violating a court order. Since he was ordered by the court to deed his interest to the wife, she is the sole owner. The wife deeded all her interest to you, which would include any interest he had since he was ordered to deed it to the wife.
He now claims damages because rates went up and he can’t get a loan. If his wife kept the property he still couldn’t get a loan. If his wife couldn’t afford the payments it would have damaged his credit. So your taking over the property subject to the existing mortgage has no bearing on his complaint about not be able to get a loan or has nothing to do with the rates going up. The court did not order the wife to refi or pay off the loan. They only ordered him to deed his interest to her, that’s it!
If anything, his only complaint could be brought against his x-wife, not you! SHE is the one who deeded her interest to you without requiring you to pay the mortgage off. This is her right to do since she was the owner of the property and hubby was required by court order to deed his interest to her. Unless the court order or divorce decree stated anything about her being required to pay off the mortgage upon any sale of the property, he is SOL and has no case against anyone! But even if he did have any kind of case it would be against the wife since SHE is the one who sold the property subject to the existing mortgage. What’s that got to do with you? Nothing! Zip! There is nothing illegal about buying a property subject to an existing mortgage. And in this case he has no say in the matter whatsoever. It’s not his property based on what the court ruled in the divorce decree. His argument is frivolous!
I would threaten his attorney with a suit against him for filing such a frivolous case!
I had an attorney try to pull some crap with me once with a tenant I had. I threatened to sue his a$$ for even filling such a frivolous case and the attorney dropped the tenant as a client! I don’t know if that will fly in your case, but I don’t see where he has a case in this situation.
I can’t get a mortgage! And??? Your point is??? Not my problem! That’s between you and your ex-wife and the court! Has nothing to do with you. His ex-wife sold HER property to you. You purchased it from her. He had no say in the matter because he had no legal interest in the property! He could pay off the mortgage himself and have you make the payments owed to him instead of the bank if wants it paid off!
Here is your choice! Sign over the deed like you were ordered to do by the court and being the nice guy you are you’ll refinance to get his name off the mortgage. Do it within 72 hours or the offer is dead! After that you will leave things the way they are until the mortgage is paid off over the remaining terms of the loan! There is nothing you can do about it! You did nothing illegal. What you did do was between you and his ex-wife. He had and has no say in the matter! Period! He has no valid claim against you over this matter. His argument and claim for damages because he can’t get a mortgage and the rates have gone up is frivolous! He should have resolved that problem with the court and asked the court to require his wife to have to refinance to get his name off the mortgage or required her to at least have to pay the mortgage off upon any sale of the property if she ever sold it. Unless he got this specified in the divorce decree then I don’t see where he has a claim for anything.
Why did the ex-wife sell to you subject to the mortgage? Was she not able to keep making the payments? Would he rather of had her fall behind and cause late pays to show up on his credit and in the end a foreclosure and a judgement against him?
Also, his argument about not being able to get a mortgage is weak at best. All he needs to do is show the property was sold and you are paying the mortgage. That would be a wash on his debt to income and allow him to get another mortgage. He doesn’t have to show it was paid off. Only that the property was sold and the payments are being made by someone else. So now what?
Sounds to me like his attorney is blowing smoke at this point. First they agreed to drop everything if you just refinance. Then they come up with this other crap to try and get you to refi within 60 days instead of 6 months. Well if they had such a great case then why would they agree to drop everything at all? Because they realize they have no case! So now they are just trying to get you to refi quicker within 60 days instead of 6 months like you proposed.
Which do you want? Within 6 months like you agreed or how ever many years are left on the mortgage? Pick one! This is your only option! If you want to threaten with frivolous lawsuits, then lets rock! I’ll keep the mortgage and pay it off over the term of the loan as agreed! Makes no difference to me! Your problem is not my problem and has nothing at all to do with me! I did nothing wrong nor did I do anything illegal! So, bite me!