How would you deal with it?

Question

You buy rental property over the internet and haven't seen it. The location is 2000 mile from you. You later discover that it was a bad deal. You receive letters from that town's government claiming you must clean the property of debris and repair damages in the housing section. The property is cited for numerous violations and you must restore it and pay for the citations; "What would you do and how do you get out of this situation?"

Answer 1

that not smart. get a lawyer man,

seriously
find out if your obligated to keep this property under your contract first, if no go then call a local property manager to do some things for now until you can make other arrangements to see the property. show the city your at least doing something about it. you need to see the property make decision to keep or dump it.

Answer 2

You need to look at your contract. What were the clauses?
Did the sellers not disclose information (problems, housing condition, etc)? Did you point blank ask them about this? If you did and it was not disclosed- that is illegal and you can sue for the cost it has incurred to you.

Also- Are there tennants already living there? How long were they complaining about damages?

In either case you must contact the town in which you bought the property. Inform them of the recent purchase and ask for an extension as there is a pending infraction upon the seller due to disclosure. If they are unwilling to work with you- ask them how many violations occured prior to your closing date. Are you prior to a certain date responsible for the property?

The second thing you must consider owning property that far from you is hiring a property manager and a attorney from that state.

Good luck.

You will have to pay for all the citations- but with this information you will have legal right and proof to bring to a lawyer.

Answer 3

Did you do any investigation to determine what the pitfalls of the deal were? This is sometimes called "due diligence." If you did not look into the deal beforehand, it's hard to complain later. There's an old saying that "you get what you pay for." If something is too good to be true . . . . Did you have a lawyer to help you with the deal before you went to a closing? If not, you probably need one now to help you see if you can get out of the deal for a lack of disclosures. Hopefully, you did not buy the property "as is" with all of the defects, etc. waived. If you did, you're probably onthe hook for whatever needs to be done. If you want out, you'll probably have to sell. You need a lawyer licensed in the area where the property is located.

Some of the comments above contain kernals of good advice. After you have checked with a lawyer, see if you can't fix up the property and then sell it. Good luck.

Answer 4

If you did not buy "as is" i would get a lawyer quick to discuss the contract and false/undisclosed information. Also did you use a real estate agent? if so you need to call the broker in charge to let them know you are getting a lawyer becuase they sold you a home with undisclosed damage. If you bought it "as is" your screwed.

BUT FIRST PICK UP THE PHONE A CALL

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street S.W., Washington, DC 20410
Telephone: [phone] TTY: [phone]

LET THEM KNOW OF YOUR SITUATION AND GET INFORMATION PERTAINING TO YOUR PROBLEM AND SEE WHAT KIND OF HELP THEY CAN GIVE YOU ON THE NEXT STEP TO RECOVERY.

sorry this happend to ya dear, never buy a property with out seeing it first.. did you not get an appraisal? inspection? i mean i dont understand how you purchase a home with this much damage with out someone bringing it to your attention or how a lender would lend money on a home with so much damage. also the title would have had to have some city or county leins, judgmetns that would have been paid by the seller if it is to the point of forclosure.. i would also recommend calling the attorney/title company to discuss if there were any leins on the title...DID YOU GET TITLE INS. if you did i would look into the county court records to see if there were any leins , judgments out there but had to yet reached the title and if there were you do not have to pay for them.. the title company does "if you got title insurance" what that does is it covers against any monies, liens or judgemtns ,that are on the property that were not yet placed on the title being that the courts office is backed up and had not made it yet.. call the attorney who closed , call the county court house of the property location.. find out any liens ect out there on the property, call an attorney, call the us. dept number i gave u.. get on this right away.

Answer 5

I would never buy property sight unseen, but...

I would go to the town and try to make a deal with them, if indeed you want to keep the property, but just don't have the funds to do the repair they are requiring. Set up a time line that works for you and do it..otherwise, you either pay the fines or you foreclose.

Most likely this property has been an eye sore for a while and the town will want to work with you, if you show good faith in fixing it up.

Answer 6

If you own it, so you have to answer the summons from the town government, and clean it up.

How did you buy it over the internet? Did you have a legal closing? How did the money change hands? Do you have a recorded deed to the property?

Too many questions here. You need an attorney.

Answer 7

I would either try to re-sell quickly or comply with the town's request.

Buying over the Internet is risky, even if it's buying a CD on eBay, you just never know what you're going to get. I don't think that I would buy property over the Internet. It's a better investment to buy a cheapie plane ticket and go and check it out first, instead of just handing a stranger your money in hopes of his honesty. We don't live in that kind of world anymore.

Answer 8

1. You are a moron.
2. Go out and look at the property see what canbe fixed and if it cant be fixed inside your budget contact the town and see if you can sell it.
3. Go to court and talk with the judge. See if he wil give you a pass on the fees and fines and give you 90 days to deal with the issues.
4. Hold out your hand. (Takes your hand and smacks it several times realy hard" Don't you ever do that again!

Answer 9

Get an attorney with expertise in real estate and sue the pants off the seller.
In the interim, get it cleaned up and taken care of, or the town government will put a lien on it and take it from you.

Answer 10

Call the person who sold it to you and say he has to give you the money back so you can fix it, or sue, maybe you could pull the same trick he pulled on you on someone else? And next time, don't buy a house on the Internet.