A house purchase from bad to worse

Time2

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Joined
Oct 3, 2019
Messages
3,687
I'm sure there is fraud in this but wonder what kind of outcome it can have.
My ex neighbor, an 85 yr old mom, 55 year old drug user/abuser son and a 25 yr old or so, grandson lived in the house. The home owner, mom died in January of 2022. The 55 yr old some gave a warranty deed to a builder in April 2022 for about 40% of what the house would be worth if in good condition, but it's not. My research up to that point showed, the 55yr old son did not own the house, their was no probate of mom's estate, so, I don't see how he could sell it. But he did sign a warranty Deed for a price of $150,000 to a builder/remodeler. The builder did some work on it but it was mostly just removing trash and gutting the house, then abruptly his 3 sub contractors stopped work, this was at about the same time the 55yr old son died which was in May of 2022. I'm told by the neighbors that were friends with the 25 yr old son that he got the money when the his father died in May. I suspect fraud their also, I don't believe the father would put his son on the bank account, because there was no trust, they were all drug addicts. My thought is he forged his deceased dad's signature to get the money. As of January 13, 2023 the only remaining son has been made administrator of the mom's estate, so, I'm guessing probate has started.

It looks like the 55 yr old drug abuser son sold his mom's house (that he didn't own) to a builder. Now after some work on the property the build has it up for sale again. I thought it was sold once, but that seems to have fallen through. So my question, how does something like this come to a resolution. The fine ladies at the court house just kept saying the attorneys will be in court. But, I'm wondering does the builder have any right to the property? He bought it from someone that didn't own it.
 
Maybe the owner (who was dead) was not paying the taxes, and the Builder paid the taxes and acquired it by paying the tax lien on the house
 
Maybe the owner (who was dead) was not paying the taxes, and the Builder paid the taxes and acquired it by paying the tax lien on the house


Nope, the mom actually had several properties (many would call her a slum lord) and they were all behind on taxes, but when the son received the $150k, he brought all the taxes up to date. She also owned a topless bar and got in trouble for hiring a under age girl in the bar. Nice booking picture of an 80 year old in black and white jail garb. :facepalm:
 
Nope, the mom actually had several properties (many would call her a slum lord) and they were all behind on taxes, but when the son received the $150k, he brought all the taxes up to date. She also owned a topless bar and got in trouble for hiring a under age girl in the bar. Nice booking picture of an 80 year old in black and white jail garb. :facepalm:

Guess we never know. So many unkowns.
 
Did you ever see the prior deed for the property (i.e. held by the mother)?
 
The House might have been held JTROS with druggie son listed as the Survivor.

Do you know if the Deed was actually transferred to the 're-modeler' before he started spending money on the place ??
 
The contractor/rebuilder should have had a title search done and went through the hoops to make sure what he was buying. He might have done that, and it was a legal sale. That is way a quitclaim deed isn't a good idea. IMO Contractor will have no protection if he bid for a quitclaim deed.

If anything, the 55-year-old son might be the one responsible and will have to be the consequence victim in the scenario. He might not have the money for a good lawyer to get out of his mess IF it wasn't a legal deal.
 
Wow - how entertaining to watch. Thank goodness it's not your problem and that the druggies no longer live there.
 
Sounds like a mess.
Some judge will most likely make the final decisions as it winds its way through probate court.
 
The contractor/rebuilder should have had a title search done and gone through the hoops to make sure what he was buying. He might have done that, and it was a legal sale. That is why a quitclaim deed isn't a good idea. IMO Contractor will have no protection if he bid for a quitclaim deed.

If the contractor financed it, hopefully there was title insurance involved and the title insurance company would have made sure the son had valid title to convey.

I agree on the quit-claim deed- if you read it, the wording on a quit-claim deed boils down to "I make no promises about my interest in the property but whatever it is I'm conveying it to you".
 
So much unknown here, no way to know what's really going on
 
Wow - how entertaining to watch. Thank goodness it's not your problem and that the druggies no longer live there.

+1000

This is what I was thinking, too. And since it's not your problem, my recommendation would be to back off and distance yourself from the problem as much as possible, ASAP.
 
Real life is so often much more interesting than any Agatha Christie novel. When it's next door or thereabouts that makes it even more interesting.
 
Many county clerks office allow you to search their records on-line to see the history of the ownership of a specific property. Some county clerks office the search is free, some charge a small fee. Some do not keep their records online. I would doing a search online for the county where the property is located and find the county office that maintains the deed transfers, your county may be called something else.

If you have never done a search, don’t give up. Try your property first, after you have done it a few times, you will look back and think how stupid I was not figuring this out sooner.

If you want to spend a few bucks contact a local title insurance company and tell them you would like a title search on a certain property. Do not request a title insurance policy much more expensive.

Good luck.
 
Yes, very unconventional things happen... there is a property in town whose owner died over a decade ago, and had a fire, and has been boarded up. The town started to proceed with abatement proceedings to clean up the abandoned mess and discovered that there was no probate (the property is still titled in the deceased name) but a decedent is paying the property taxes. The abatement will result in a lein on the property...

If the taxes ever stop being paid it could go up for a tax auction, but here in WA one of the risks of a tax sale is that it can be undone when there is a permanently disabled offspring... which is the case with this property.
 
Back
Top Bottom