how to aquire title to a nuisance property - Posted by Sarah
Posted by Sarah on April 20, 2009 at 10:32:28:
Hi!,
I have a problem that would seem rather simple on the face of it, but has been infinitely difficult for us to find a solution to on our own, so i am seeking some other perspectives.
My husband and I bought a peice of land about 2 years ago. we built a house on it, we live there and have a farm there now. the neighbor next door thought that he had a lease-to-own agreement with his landlord, who THOUGHT that he had bought the entire 13 acres at a foreclosure auction, but in reality, he only bought an 8 acre portion of it at the auction, as the mortgage company did not have the right to foreclose the remaining 5 acres due to them being sold to a family member (who subsequently sold them to us) prior to the mortgage being executed.
The tenant was understandably angry when the investor refused to negotiate a lower price upon discovering the discrepancy, and so he moved out. He also left trash EVERYWHERE (including at least a small dumpsterfull worth about 30 ft over on our side of the property line) and completely trashed the house. the kitchen and bathrooms are rusted and were left full of trash and feces, there is animal excrement all over the entire house, and the driveway is torn up with giant ruts in it, the downstairs is completely gutted and full of trash, the septic system is clogged up and has overflowed into the basement (which the bathroom of he took all the fixtures and left them smashed and broken all over the bathroom, toilets, vanities and showers ripped apart. There were dead animals left in the yard and the fences and dog houses were torn apart. There are broken windows, missing peices of wall on the sunroom, even a section torn off the eaves of the roof.
When we found out that the tenant had left, we made the owner/investor an offer to purchase the property. We know of him by reputation since this is a small town and he comes from a very prominent family who has been investing in this area for generations. He has a reputation for being unethical, and … well, to put it nicely, a money hungry snob. But still, we would like to own this property, and though unfortunate that we will have to deal with him to get it, we were willing to suffer some unpleasant conversations. I have studied real estate, have a license, and have worked with investors on creative deals for 7 years, so i know how to cover my back fairly well. I KNOW that he has clear title to it, since i did a title search at the courthouse. if he has a mortgage on it, it isn’t recorded. He said that he did, but i don’t believe him.
After the tenant moved out, he has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the property. He hasn’t put up any signs, he hasn’t cleaned anything, he hasn’t even come over to check on it. Now it has been a year since we made our offer, and after being jerked around for about 4-5 months we gave up trying to talk to him. he would say that he would accept a certain price, but then would refuse to come sign a contract with us (or more accurately, he stood us up waiting on him 3 times), and finally stopped returning phone calls. I know that he went to the neighbor on the other side of this property and asked him if he was interested in the property, since this neighbor is the son of the woman who lost it in foreclosure (who is deceased now). It was a family homestead type property before. He told the investor to take a hike, that he wasn’t willing to pay, even what the investor paid at the auction for it. This neighbor is a pretty good friend of ours, so i believe he tells us the truth.
This property is just rotting there, and there is still trash all over it, even after a year. With most people, I would say, “well, he probably wants to sit on it and see if he can find a more profitable use before he sells it.” But then, i know his brother acquired a property from another friend of ours by manipulating a legal situation in a divorce, and has sat on it for 4 years just to spite the original owner for not selling to him when he asked. I wouldn’t put it past this man to sit on it for a while just to spite us for not being able to pay cash for it when we made our offer. He is the type who thinks that anyone who doesn’t have money is stupid and lower class than him, and probably deserves to be poor. (we aren’t poor, we just choose to live differently than he does.)
So i am asking myself now “there has got to be a way to at least force him to clean up the mess.” What i really want is for him to sell it too me, but since he won’t be bothered, it seems really unsuitable for the property to sit and decline further, while all the neighbors keep their places in good repair, and be an eyesore to the neighborhood. What’s more, the tenant comes back periodically and sleeps in the house even with no power or water there and leaves it with doors wide open when he decides to leave. I know that in AL squatters will acquire adverse possession rights after 10 years if this is left to go on like this. I DO NOT want this tenant for a permanent neighbor like this. He has already racked up at least 2 years i know living in the house, so only 8 more to go and it will be his. For us though, I believe we would have to possess the property for 20 years since we have no color of title, (which his lease would be). What can I do to push this investor in my direction? I really do want this property! It would be a bigger house than we have, give us better access to the back of our land, and has well established fruit trees, which would be a nice addition to our farm, as well as a couple of small outbuildings that we could really use. The offer we made him was more than fair. it was $6,000 above tax appraisal value, which was the value when the house was in GOOD repair. Our only condition was that he hold the mortgage for 3 years with a balloon then, so we could have time to refinance. He said he agreed, but wouldn’t show up to sign. ???
What would you do?
Meanwhile I am living next door to a garbage dump and waiting to build the bigger house that I need to see if I can get this one.