Keep in mind that you may actually have a positive interest here. The fact that you have not been notified of having received any property is not necessarily the end of the matter, particularly if your uncle screwed up the handling of the estate. There might be a will that was improperly handled, or the state’s laws on disposing of property where there is no will might leave a partial interest in grandma’s property to you or your mother. If there’s equity in the house over and above the foreclosure amount, you or your mother might be entitled to a share of it. These are questions that your lawyer will be able to address.
Since it’s a foreclosure, my guess is that the suit was filed where the house is located.
Disclaimer: None of this is legal advice; these are suggestions as to why one might seek legal advice. Nothing in this message is intended to create a lawyer-client relationship. This is just anonymous chat and should not be relied on.
I am not a lawyer, and by participating in this thread, I am in no way attempting to become friends with, mingle, fraternize, or otherwise engage lawyers or legal-eagle-type persons for any reason whatsoever, up to, and including, matters of law. Or lawyers. Legally, that is.
Would it be incredibly reckless to just send a certified plain-English letter to the law firm and if you were called into court at some point just state the simple facts that you have nothing to do with the mortgage?
Alternately, I know at least as of several years ago, GMAC did their payment processing in Illinois, so perhaps it’s the mortgage company who is based there.
Yeah–it does seem to me that if anyone ought to be responsible for attorney’s fees here, it should be the collection agency. I’m wondering whether it’d be advisable to call the collection office and say something like, “Look, I have nothing to do with this case, but I also don’t have the money to get an attorney to help me with this. If you want a piece of paper signed by me that says I have no claim to this estate, send it to me registered and I’ll send it back signed. But if I need to have an attorney involved, then I’ll be asking the court to award attorney’s fees.”
My mom effectively did this, minus the threat at the end. The guy told her over a week ago he’d send her the paper for a release of liability, but she hasn’t received it yet. I suspect she likely never will.
I’m a little confused here. Let’s assume grandma did not have a reverse mortgage (I think for my 2 cents it doesn’t make a difference)
Someone owns the house according to the intestate laws of your locale. It could be your mom and uncle and possibly your cousin (not the child of your uncle) but someone does own the house. Your first step will be to find who is the owner under the laws of your state. Second, they get an attorney to take possession or control of the house. I suspect if nothing was done it may still be under your grandmother’s name which is why it took GMAC so long to a) realize she was dead and b) locate all potential next-of-kin which would explain why all of you were served.
Then it becomes a matter of dealing with the mortgage because although you don’t inheret debt, I can’t belief you get the house free and clear upon her death. Yes, lawsuits may have to be filed against the executor for not performing their fiduciary duty for the heirs but that will come out when dealing with the rest of it.
My suggestion? Don’t sign any quit-claims until everything is sorted out.
Disclaimer: IANAL and have no clue what I’m talking about.
Yeah–I’m wondering whether, given the deadline and threat they’ve given you, it’s appropriate to get a little ugly back with them. “I need to have this form emailed to me today, or else tomorrow I’ll start talking to attorneys, exploring my options. Here’s my email address. What’s your name, and are you the person I can contact in the future? What’s your email address? I’m going to send you an email of my understanding of this conversation as soon as I get off the phone. Thank you, I really appreciate your help, and I look forward to getting that form!” That sort of thing.
Of course, it might be helpful to see if you can get an initial consult with an attorney to find out your options in advance. I know there have been a few (okay, two) occasions where I’ve talked with an attorney or secretary free of charge to find out whether I even have a case.
For clarity’s sake: there was no reverse mortgage-- the property was purchased in the last decade, I believe. Uncle took out a loan to help her with her down payment, but that was quickly paid back and his only involvement with the house is that when grandma would spend all of her money on stupid shit, he’d give her cash to make her mortgage payments.
Secondly, my cousin is my uncle’s daughter. So, what you have are grandma’s two kids— mom and uncle-- then their two daughters-- me and cousin.
Part of me wonders how much her mortgage payments were and what the value of the property is. Hell, if her payments were somehow incredibly low I wouldn’t be opposed to taking sole ownership of the property and renting it out. . .but I suspect that whole process would be far too complicated to ever be worthwhile.
I actually wonder this myself, but really: who actually has the power here? It isn’t me, sadly. I’m not sure I’m in the position to start making threats, otherwise I’d cheerfully do so.
Lawyer put a call in to them, so we’ll see what their response is (if there even is one). I’ll of course keep you guys updated with the goings on here, particularly because my internet searches showed. . . well, not a lot of info about this online. I mean, there were some questions and discussions here or there, but I think it’d be nice for someone who later finds that they’re in the same situation to be able to search up this thread and see folks batting around ideas (which are not, of course, intended to be legal advice!).
Here we go again. Why are people suggesting playing silly games with a deep pockets company that can fuck you way worse if they feel like it? Once again, the best thing to do is to dispatch this as quickly as possible.
My WAG: Your uncle didn’t tell GMAC to come get it, or he did but the message didn’t get passed to the right people, or he did but legally that means exactly Jack and Shit. So GMAC finally says “well, she’s dead, no one’s making payments, and our letters are apparently going into a black hole, so it’s time to get out the lawyers and figure this out.” They don’t know there wasn’t a will, so everyone who’s a potential beneficiary gets tagged.
I’ve done a bit of research via the internet tubes machine and this is what I’ve sussed out:
Property was purchased in 2006 for $206,000.
After looking through this paperwork a bit more thoroughly, it looks like the original mortgage was $165,000, but the suit is actually for $153,000.
Currently, homes in the same development are selling for $190k+.
Similar units in the development are renting for $1300-$1500 a month.
A mortgage on the balance would be anywhere from $600-$800 a month on a 30 year fixed.
While I can’t know the state of her property, I can roughly assume there is some equity in the property, unless there is some crazy damage to it (which is possible, since houses sitting empty are sort of targets for all kinds of nonsense).
I suppose I’m not sure why my uncle walked here. I just ran these numbers by my CPA father who said, “Your mother’s brother has never been good with money, you know that. Why don’t you assume the loan? If everything checks out, it seems like you’d have a solid investment there.”
While I think he’s got a point now that I’m finding the numbers here, I’m not sure if it’d be worth the legal hassle of trying to straighten this all out. Plus, who knows what the house is like. I wonder if my mom would be able to go over and look at it (she lives a few miles away) or if the bank has already sealed it up.
Do you trust this uncle? Is the house completely empty (furniture, clothes, dishes, any valuables)?
What do you want out of this? The house, half the value of the house, any valuables that you thought would go to you? If you get nothing, will that be okay?
I do not trust my uncle one iota at this point. Perhaps I did before, but getting dragged into this has raised my state from skeptical to full on disbelieving.
I was and still am fine getting absolutely nothing, but if I have to go through a whole heap of trouble because of his foolish inaction, I’m not going to do so quietly. I realize that last bit is somewhat childish, but if my life is going to have to be seriously disrupted because of this, I am going to make sure that I’m getting what I’m due.
Nothing childish about it in the least IMHO. When someone forces you into a game there is no reason whatsoever not to play for keeps. In fact at that point, I’m far more likely to get vicious about it.
