Okay, I am curious about options here. I have lived at my parents house since 2000 (though i moved in there all my life but left in 1989.)
They have been deceased since 08. They had stopped paying on the loan to it before they died.
Finally it has now been sold at sheriffs auction. The man who bought it, I know him as an acquaintance. He said I could stay there month to month for a price I cannot afford, without doing any repairs.
It has numerous repairs (all windows, carpet, room that had a fire, etc) that I don’t see him making much after repairing.
My lawyer friend says to make him evict me. How long does this take? How long would I have if he did not file a writ?
This is the kind of thing that varies a lot from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but in my experience it’s getting the foreclosure through and the sale confirmed that takes a long time, and the subsequent evictions are pretty fast. Other places may be different.
If he were diligent and you didn’t acquiesce but also didn’t take extraordinary measures to resist (bankruptcy, challenging the foreclosure/sale) I would say anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for the sheriff to show up and put and your stuff on the curb, depending on how busy the courts and sheriff are.
As to your last question, again, in my jurisdiction, there are only two options for him to get you out: you agree to leave, or he files an eviction proceeding. There is no (legal) third option (eg, he can’t turn off the utilities, change the locks, etc.).
There is a third option. It’s an ejectment action. You aren’t a tenant and you weren’t a party in the foreclosure, but you are an occupant.
You really should speak to a lawyer who knows what they are doing and is familiar with how these matters are handled in your area.
My lawyer friend said I would have about a month, he looked at the sale online.
Listen to your lawyer friend. It varies greatly from state to state. Or you could just move out because it’s not your house and you aren’t paying for it.
When I was in the process of attempting to sell my house, I had several people make me great offers to rent it. The possibility of having to go through eviction proceedings stopped me though. Instead, the place sat empty for close to two years.
Understandable. In my state and county eviction is a huge pain in the ass. So The OP is thinking of just staying there and forcing the owner to go through the expense of getting her evicted which may mean lots of lawyer and legal fees just to get someone out of the house he owns. I hope for the owner’s sake it’s in a state which has an easier eviction process.
So you’re a squatter, correct?
Please, the OP is exercising ‘informal occupation rights’.
Yeah, sounds like a squatter to me.
Well the lawyers I know said I am not squatting. It was my parents house. And it was sold from the descendants of Parents Names.
I understand that your parents used to own the house. Right now someone else owns the property. You are living there. You are not paying rent. You will not leave without being forced to. The owner has to go through the expense and trouble to have you evicted. I don’t know what dictionary your lawyer uses but that’s pretty much the definition of squatting.
I’m curious: do the three of you suppose that the point of this thread is to determine the right terminology? If not, I wonder what your point in belaboring the definition of “squatter” is supposed to be.
Because this is an opinion forum, and the circumstances of her living situation are pertinent to shaping my opinion.
The OP has a colorful history on this board, but that aside, nobody has paid anything to live in this home since before the owners died in 2008. This makes the OP a squatter and in my opinion, it’s ethically and morally wrong to remain living there while forcing the actual owners of the house (the bank) to go through the legal process to have her removed via eviction.
This isn’t a story about a down on their luck person getting behind on their mortgage and losing it to the big bad banks. Her parents stopped paying the banks 4 or 5 (or more) years ago and BigBertha thought she could just hang out there forever like it ain’t no thang. In my opinion, that’s wrong.
And my opinion is that making yourself homeless so that people on the internet won’t cast aspersions on your morals and ethics or to spare a bank the indignity of instutiting an eviction action is pretty fucking daft.
The bank doesn’t own it, this acquaintance of mine does. We met at a association meeting for the place. he buys a lot of them and said he hadn’t realized it was mine he bought last month. hes told me I could stay month to month for 450, but I do not make that a month.
He bought it for 5,000 but I am pretty sure it needs well over 10,000 in repairs before its even rentable.
No ethical issue at all. The buyer was fully aware (or should have been) that there was someone living in the house. Any time and expense related to removing the person was/should have been included in the buying price.
Similarly with the bank beforehand–the potential cost of moving through the foreclosure/eviction process was/should have been included in their calculations of interest rates.
Of course, it’s much easier–and more fun–to cast aspersions.
Go back and read the OP again. She is asking for opinions and options. My opinion is its wrong to live in some else’s house and force them to remove you. My option is get out.
BigBertha, don’t know where you live but here’s another angle:
If you’re living in an area where empty houses are prone to being vandalized and stripped for scrap metal (similar to Flint MI, I live just north, where arson/vandalism/stripping is a HUGE problem) then you may be doing the current owner a favor. Since occupied homes aren’t typically vandalized and stripped.
Then again - if you can’t afford $450 for rent now, how are you going to afford housing going forward? I can understand squatting/occupying your folks’ home for free for as long as possible, but this isn’t a long-term solution.
Wow. You didn’t ask and it’s not relevant, but $450 a month rent seems like a lot for a house that sold for $5,000.
Why not offer him a nominal amount until he finds a renter?
Or offer him $250 a month (or similar) on a land contract for a few years. That way, if he’s willing, you can end up owing it outright.