Posted by John Merchant on March 10, 2010 at 13:19:19:
In those states that permit RECs, there’s usually statutory law saying that such a REC is “foreclosed” by a court action known as Contract Forfeiture.
Here in WA State the unpaid seller files a Suit to Forfeit that REC, takes a formal Judgment if it gets that far, thus gets the complete title back into his name so he can repo, resell, etc.
A good thing about using a REC and then its forfeiture action is it’s cheaper than a DOT foreclosure and many are handled “pro se” w/o need of a lawyer.
Conversely though, a REC Forfeiture can be quickly stopped at the last minute by the defaulting Buyer just catching up his delinquency and not having to pay the entire contract balance.
I was involved several years ago with such a wise-guy buyer whom we had to sue, then re-sue several times and the wise-guy kept “redeeming” at the last possible minute.
We finally caught him w/o cash so did get a Judgment of Forfeiture but I’m thinking it was like the 3d or 4th Forfeiture action we had to file to finally catch him.
Only a renter/tenant can be legally evicted so that’d be an inappropriate remedy as in a REC there’s a Buyer and Seller, but no tenant.