What are our rights?

[Mommaof6]

Jurisdiction

Texas

We were buying the home we are currently living in until Decamber 2015 when we were foreclosed on. January 2016, it was bought with cash at a foreclosure auction. The man who bought it allowed us to stay here and pay rent equal to the house notes we had been paying before (with the exception of insurance and taxes).

That spring our property flooded and our water well was broken. He informed us he didn't have insurance and what we lost was our responsibility. We continued to pay because we couldn't afford to move somewhere else (which is also why we are still here). He has never stepped foot onto the property, let alone come inside (He doesn't even have a key.). He has no idea what it looks like and I'm sure he wouldn't be too impressed. After the flood, six children and nine years there are quite a few repairs that need to be done. We get our water from a hose hook up from the neighbors, black mold has been growing in the upper parts of the house, the downstairs carpet was ruined after the flood and there are so many other things. Some of them were before he bought it, but a lot were not.

February of this year, he, almost without notice, told us he hired a property manager and that we would be communicating with them from now on. They did not come inspect the house or ask for keys. They are now suddenly wanting to come do a "routine inspection" and are trying to hold us liable for damages done saying we did not ask permission to hang things on the walls or asking for a pet deposit when the dog has lived here as long as we have. Is that legal for them to do even if they have no idea what the interior of our house looks like? Did we really lose all of our rights with our house when it was sold at auction?

They are also trying to say that every appliance belongs to them now. There wasn't even a fridge when we bought this house and we have purchased all of them ourselves. We even installed/upgraded faucets, fixtures, the water holding tank, water heater, etc. Can they legally just claim all of those as theirs?!

Please advise as quickly as possible. Thank you!

 

[mightymoose]

It sounds like you need to move and take all your stuff with you.

You should have obtained renters insurance once you no longer owned the home. Personal property lost or damaged could have been covered by that. Damage to the property itself is the owner's problem.

Was there no written rental agreement? If not, all your rights and responsibilities, as well as the landlord's, are detailed in state statutes. They will have to give you notice and a new rental agreement to change your rent or obtain new deposits.

It will likely be much better and easier to put this mess behind you and move out.

 

[adjusterjack]

Did we really lose all of our rights with our house when it was sold at auction?

Pretty much.

I agree with Mightymoose.

No good will ever come of trying to fight this.

Cut your losses, find another place to live, pack up and get out.

They are also trying to say that every appliance belongs to them now. There wasn't even a fridge when we bought this house and we have purchased all of them ourselves. We even installed/upgraded faucets, fixtures, the water holding tank, water heater, etc. Can they legally just claim all of those as theirs?!

Anything built-in is no longer yours.

Anything portable, like a refrigerator, washer, dryer, FOR WHICH YOU HAVE A PURCHASE RECEIPT, may be taken with you. If you didn't keep the receipts, leave it behind if you don't want to be reported for theft.

 

[Mommaof6]

We were new to the whole renting thing and had no idea we should've gotten renters insurance. We are working on finding a new place now and hope to be out sometime in the next few months, at most.

He sent us a lease, but we never signed it. The rental company keeps telling us we have broken our lease and each time we ask for proof of their so-called lease with our signatures, they send us a summons for eviction court.

So, even if we have a very, very expensive fridge that was given to us by my mil, we have to leave it because we have no reciept? Same with the washer and dryer. They are very pricey ones that were handed down when she upgraded hers. She doesn't still have reciepts. I know this. How can they know what was here and what wasn't if they've never seen the property? Who's to say it wasn't bare drywall and plywood flooring?

This house is worth $67,000. ($69,000, if you count the land it's on) and we paid $72,000 in mortgage payments/loan modifications and loan extensions, plus another almost $13,000 in rent. We paid for this house already. I don't see how its fair to expect people to leave behind another $10-$15,000 worth of stuff because they got caught in a rut.

 

[adjusterjack]

So, even if we have a very, very expensive fridge that was given to us by my mil, we have to leave it because we have no reciept? Same with the washer and dryer. They are very pricey ones that were handed down when she upgraded hers. She doesn't still have reciepts. I know this. How can they know what was here and what wasn't if they've never seen the property? Who's to say it wasn't bare drywall and plywood flooring?

Very amusing. How would you feel if you were reported for theft, got arrested, had to make bail, face prosecution, be tried (or take a plea) and explain to the judge why you feel you "owned" all that stuff.

Do what you want to do (ill advised or not) but make sure you understand the possible consequences and be willing to accept them if it all blows up in your face.

This house is worth $67,000. ($69,000, if you count the land it's on) and we paid $72,000 in mortgage payments/loan modifications and loan extensions, plus another almost $13,000 in rent. We paid for this house already.

Uh, obviously you didn't "pay for the house" because it got foreclosed for non-payment. You apparently don't understand the difference between principle and interest.

I don't see how its fair to expect people to leave behind another $10-$15,000 worth of stuff because they got caught in a rut.

No, it's not fair. You are free to take what you want and hope nothing bad happens.

 

[Mommaof6]

I'm not scared of being arrested for taking things that rightfully belong to me and I'd have no problem pleading my case in front of a judge. It is absolutely wrong of someone to take something that doesn't belong to them, regardless of what it is.

How would you feel if you spruced up your space at work with personal belongings and made yourself a nice lunch to take with you only to have the owner of your company stop by one day, take everything off of your desk and help themself to your lunch, telling you they have that right just because they own the company?


What I meant when I said we paid for the house was that they unfairly overcharged us. I understand principal and interest. I get it. I just don't get how financial institutions can justify charging an eager young couple with no credit 12.75% (!!!) interest, promising them they could refinance after a single years worth of on-time mortgage payments. Then, at the end of the year, tell them their credit still isn't good enough, tricking them into extending the loan for another year (twice). It was only after the third year that we found out the reason our credit score wasn't getting any higer after an impeccable payment schedule that they weren't even reporting to any credit agency.

Are there things we could've/should've done differently? Yes. Are there things we could've/should've looked into before moving in or extending the loan? Most definitely. Do we feel like idiots because we blindly trusted a corporation. F!#@ yes! However, we were an eager young couple with three children and another on the way. We were excited to be buying our own home at such a young age and didn't really know our options about getting out of a loan. We thought it would negatively affect our credit and we wouldn't be able to buy another home. Not to mention, the size of our family was growing and even though my husband had a really good job, we were struggling to make ends meet. We couldn't afford another huge down payment on something else.

So, yes, I do feel like we paid for the house even if we never got past paying the interest and I do feel like things that we installed and/or upgraded belong to us. I also think we'll pack up every single one of those installations and upgrades when we do leave. I think we'll even take the risk of loading up the lighbulbs, the doorknobs and trees we planted in the yard.

 

[adjusterjack]

You have every right to be angry and hindsight is always 20/20. But everybody has had bad things happen to them, some worse than others (I've had my share).

You do what you gotta do, hope for the best, survive as best you can, move on to bigger and better things and, above all, learn from your mistakes.

 

[mightymoose]

Personally, if take my appliances with me. The new owner doesn't have a receipt for thlose things either. They aren't his. He bought the house, not YOUR property.

I agree though... If it's built in, like an oven or some microwaves, leave it.

 

[Mommaof6]

Considering the guy that bought our cheap, dilapitated house owns one himself that is worth over $900,000, we aren't really too worried about him needing to replace appliances. We looked it up. Yes, he owns an almost million dollar house and refuses to fix our water well that would probably cost less than his electric bill.

I've been trying to get my husband to agree to buying an rv and raising our kids in a more simplistic way anyway. Not so much for the ecofriendliness of it (which is good), but for my sanity. We tried home ownership and it didn't work out. I don't want to invest that much into something else that might just be taken from us when times get tough. I also don't like the idea that when one has a bigger house they feel the need for more stuff to fill it. We spend most of our time outside anyway. Might as well have something that requires less effort to clean and is paid for.

Thanks for the advice and the tips, though.

 

[army judge]

Considering the guy that bought our cheap, dilapitated house owns one himself that is worth over $900,000, we aren't really too worried about him needing to replace appliances. We looked it up. Yes, he owns an almost million dollar house and refuses to fix our water well that would probably cost less than his electric bill.

I've been trying to get my husband to agree to buying an rv and raising our kids in a more simplistic way anyway. Not so much for the ecofriendliness of it (which is good), but for my sanity. We tried home ownership and it didn't work out. I don't want to invest that much into something else that might just be taken from us when times get tough. I also don't like the idea that when one has a bigger house they feel the need for more stuff to fill it. We spend most of our time outside anyway. Might as well have something that requires less effort to clean and is paid for.

Thanks for the advice and the tips, though.

Home BUYERSHIP another one of the greatest scams foisted on humankind. Most people never own the damn thing, but they sure as hell DIE trying.

 

[Mommaof6]

That is the truth! After all of those years and all of that wasted money, we could've purchased a super awesome rv and a nice chunk of land. We could already be free from the debt of mortgage or rent payments and we could be spending our time enjoying life.

My goal is to be moved into one within a few months. We may not have the available funds to do some nationwide travelling just yet, but we'd have an awesome start.

 

[army judge]

That is the truth! After all of those years and all of that wasted money, we could've purchased a super awesome rv and a nice chunk of land. We could already be free from the debt of mortgage or rent payments and we could be spending our time enjoying life.

My goal is to be moved into one within a few months. We may not have the available funds to do some nationwide travelling just yet, but we'd have an awesome start.

Mobile homes, RVs, and their kin are quite acceptable alternatives to a lifetime of mortgage payments and taxes by greedy city governments.

I wish you all of the best, and I'm happy to hear that you wised up!!!

 

[ElleMD]

Your age, lack of understanding of how financing a home works, and lack of credit is not your landlord's fault. Nor the lender's. It is not their job to educate you. They offered a mortgage. You accepted the rate. There are many things you could have done to improve your credit score. If you did not do these things, your credit isn't going to improve and lenders aren't going to offer you a better rate. The one who told you refinancing was an option wasn't wrong but that person has no control at all over your finances or credit decisions.

And yes, if you decorate your office at work, your boss can come in and take it all down as you do not own your office. Your boss is free to dictate whether or not you can put holes in walls or paint. If you choose to do those things, it is for your own enjoyment while you are permitted to use the office. When you leave, you don't get a bonus for making your own office space more pleasant. You can take the things you actually purchased, but that is all. Same with rent.

It sounds like you haven't taken very good care of the place if there is lots of damage. Your landlord absolutely can sue you for damaging his property and leaving it uninhabitable. I'd think twice before trashing the place out of spite.

 

[Mommaof6]

No, it is not their fault we didn't fully understand. I stated that in one of my responses.

The fact that they told us we could refinance after paying on time for a full year was obviously a lie if they purposely did not report to any credit agencies. If they had, it is quite possible we would've been able to refinance the first year.

The second year, they told us to try other things such as a prepaid credit card and rent to own places guaranteeing we'd be able to refinance. We did both of those. We even tried two different rent to own places. Once again, at the end of the year, we were not approved for refinancing and once again, they were not reporting.

Three years worth of impeccable mortgage payments plus the credit we were building elsewhere would've been enough to get us refinanced. We know this because each time they looked into it when we tried refinancing they told us we were just barely under the approval rating.

As far as the office comment goes, I didn't mean taking the items down, I meant claiming them as their own.

The damage we have done is pretty basic wear and tear for a decade of living in a home. All in all, considering the fact that we've raised six children here and hosted countless holiday events, this place looks pretty freaking amazing. The white walls are still white. The 20 foot ceiling in the living room gets dusted twice a year. Before the flood, the beige carpet had very few spots because I cleaned them four times a year. People that visit always comment on how well kept my home is.

We were buying the house so we didn't just come in and trash the place. However, the house is a pier and beam house. It has settled over the years and has small cracking in parts of the walls and floors. We had baby gates that caused a small amount of drywall damage at the top and bottom of the stairs. We also had the pipes on the holding tank for the water well bust at one time causing a little water damage in the walk in pantry. Those were things we did.

Could we have fixed items around the house before? Possibly, but we were on a tight budget paying mortgage payments and the cost of living for a large family (that did NOT recieve welfare of any kind). Not to mention the fact that my husband worked out of town literally for half the year and there is only so much a housewife raising and homeschooling a bunch of kids can do alone.

The damages I am talking about are damages that have surfaced since he bought the property. The storms that caused the flood, which obviously we had no control over, caused quite a bit of damage that didn't fully reveal itself til some time later. The roof leaks in three different places causing the black mold to appear. The water pump was broken due to debris causing the water well not to work. The house has settled more in the last year than it had for the past previous eight years combined. He REFUSES to fix them, claiming they are not his responsibility.

We have taken care of as much as we. We stay because we cannot afford to pay literally twice the rent somewhere else. We have not taken him to court to fight him because we cannot afford a lawyer to defend ourselves against a man that obviously is more well off than we are.

I have no intention of spitefully trashing the place. I was simply saying that I have every intention of taking every single thing that my husband literally risked his life for. He left his family for half the year, missing birthdays and holidays, sometimes even working in the -10 degree bitter cold or 115 degree scorching sun to provide those things for us. Hell yes, those items belong to us. Some rich old man does not deserve them just because he has money to throw around. He preyed on someone else's misfortune and is trying to hold us liable for damages that were not our fault.

He has plenty of money (that he himself may have worked hard for as well) to repair the damages that were caused by a force of nature. He bought the property as is, and after almost owning it for 18 months, has still not seen it. He has no proof that it was habitable at the time he bought it.

I'm pretty sure, by the way, that no water makes a home inhabitable in itself. And I think black mold is considered a major health risk. Wouldn't it be some shit if we could hold him liable for the things he won't fix? Ha.

 

[ElleMD]

Again, what your husband chooses to do for a living has zero bearing on any of this. Nor does the relative wealth of you versus your landlord. That changes nothing. It is also not the fault of the mortgage lender that your credit was poor. You were free to shop around to other lenders, but they all use roughly the same criteria and that is not anything anyone but you can control. Mortgages don't have to be reported to the credit bureaus but typically are.

Much of what you complain of could have been fixed by you when you owned the house or would have been covered by renter's insurance.