Contract Sale - I wanna move!

[JMG]

What is the name of your state? Indiana
I am buying a home on contract, and a few months ago managed to pay off the interest, now working on principal. When I initially reviewed the contract, some of the conditions concerned me a little, but the extremely low monthly payment took precedence and..I needed a home in a hurry.
Anyway, 5 or so years later, I've decided the utilities are outrageous, it costs me nearly double my monthly payment, plus the monthly payment to live here and I can't seem to afford it anymore. I'm looking to move into an apartment. My biggest concern is my ignorance of any rights or procedures I may have to follow regarding leaving such a contract. Am I able to move from this home, having paid all this interest, without being sued? I'll have to review the contract again, but to the best of my remembrance, I don't remember a stipulation regarding leaving the contract other than default of payment.
There have been weird instances, such as the person I'm buying the home from stating that if I contacted someone about a mortgage loan, they would tell them whatever they could to make sure it didn't happen. I don't understand this, they would have their payment in full and be rid of the property..so ..why not? Recently I was informed by my neighbor that the trees along our property line are going to be a problem for our pipes and theirs, as well as the rooves, I personally cannot afford even half the cost of having a professional come and uproot the trees, not to mention replacing the fence. Another weird thing was that I am to keep insurance on the home, but the physical policy is to be held by them. I am also responsible for property taxes, but I have always paid a lump sum extra every month to cover this.
As I said, I'm going to review the contract again, but I was wondering if there was a blanketing law on this issue, or if anyone could tell me the best way to go about leaving such a contract. I've basically been a 'renter', they have been paid for my time here with no additional damage to the property. Things happen/change and it's getting to the point where I can't afford utilities as well as my monthly payment, taxes, insurance, etc. and it's not exactly fair to them, either, I do understand they need to make some sort of profit from the property, and I would much rather reduce my monthly costs by nearly 75%. I will have to, otherwise I will continue to go broke and be evicted eventually anyway!
Any thoughts would be appreciated, although there's much more to the story, this is the gist..I wanna move. Thanks!

[acmb05]

Originally Posted by JMG

What is the name of your state? Indiana
I am buying a home on contract, and a few months ago managed to pay off the interest, now working on principal. When I initially reviewed the contract, some of the conditions concerned me a little, but the extremely low monthly payment took precedence and..I needed a home in a hurry.
Anyway, 5 or so years later, I've decided the utilities are outrageous, it costs me nearly double my monthly payment, plus the monthly payment to live here and I can't seem to afford it anymore. I'm looking to move into an apartment. My biggest concern is my ignorance of any rights or procedures I may have to follow regarding leaving such a contract. Am I able to move from this home, having paid all this interest, without being sued? I'll have to review the contract again, but to the best of my remembrance, I don't remember a stipulation regarding leaving the contract other than default of payment.
There have been weird instances, such as the person I'm buying the home from stating that if I contacted someone about a mortgage loan, they would tell them whatever they could to make sure it didn't happen. I don't understand this, they would have their payment in full and be rid of the property..so ..why not? Recently I was informed by my neighbor that the trees along our property line are going to be a problem for our pipes and theirs, as well as the rooves, I personally cannot afford even half the cost of having a professional come and uproot the trees, not to mention replacing the fence. Another weird thing was that I am to keep insurance on the home, but the physical policy is to be held by them. I am also responsible for property taxes, but I have always paid a lump sum extra every month to cover this.
As I said, I'm going to review the contract again, but I was wondering if there was a blanketing law on this issue, or if anyone could tell me the best way to go about leaving such a contract. I've basically been a 'renter', they have been paid for my time here with no additional damage to the property. Things happen/change and it's getting to the point where I can't afford utilities as well as my monthly payment, taxes, insurance, etc. and it's not exactly fair to them, either, I do understand they need to make some sort of profit from the property, and I would much rather reduce my monthly costs by nearly 75%. I will have to, otherwise I will continue to go broke and be evicted eventually anyway!
Any thoughts would be appreciated, although there's much more to the story, this is the gist..I wanna move. Thanks!

Are you paying the utilities to the person you are buying the house from? If you are I would request copies of the bills before I paid them

You have a signed contract to buy the home from them and they can enforce it. If I were you I would go to a bank anyway or just sell the place, pay off the loan to the owner and pocket the difference.

As far as the trees, I would not put much weight behind what the neighbor says, he may just want the trees chopped down for the wood or he just dont like them. Have a professional come look at it.

[BelizeBreeze]

Originally Posted by JMG

What is the name of your state? Indiana
I am buying a home on contract, and a few months ago managed to pay off the interest, now working on principal. When I initially reviewed the contract, some of the conditions concerned me a little, but the extremely low monthly payment took precedence and..I needed a home in a hurry.
Anyway, 5 or so years later, I've decided the utilities are outrageous, it costs me nearly double my monthly payment, plus the monthly payment to live here and I can't seem to afford it anymore. I'm looking to move into an apartment. My biggest concern is my ignorance of any rights or procedures I may have to follow regarding leaving such a contract. Am I able to move from this home, having paid all this interest, without being sued? I'll have to review the contract again, but to the best of my remembrance, I don't remember a stipulation regarding leaving the contract other than default of payment.
There have been weird instances, such as the person I'm buying the home from stating that if I contacted someone about a mortgage loan, they would tell them whatever they could to make sure it didn't happen. I don't understand this, they would have their payment in full and be rid of the property..so ..why not? Recently I was informed by my neighbor that the trees along our property line are going to be a problem for our pipes and theirs, as well as the rooves, I personally cannot afford even half the cost of having a professional come and uproot the trees, not to mention replacing the fence. Another weird thing was that I am to keep insurance on the home, but the physical policy is to be held by them. I am also responsible for property taxes, but I have always paid a lump sum extra every month to cover this.
As I said, I'm going to review the contract again, but I was wondering if there was a blanketing law on this issue, or if anyone could tell me the best way to go about leaving such a contract. I've basically been a 'renter', they have been paid for my time here with no additional damage to the property. Things happen/change and it's getting to the point where I can't afford utilities as well as my monthly payment, taxes, insurance, etc. and it's not exactly fair to them, either, I do understand they need to make some sort of profit from the property, and I would much rather reduce my monthly costs by nearly 75%. I will have to, otherwise I will continue to go broke and be evicted eventually anyway!
Any thoughts would be appreciated, although there's much more to the story, this is the gist..I wanna move. Thanks!

Please hold the contract up to the monitor so we can read it and advise accordingly.

[JMG]

Originally Posted by BelizeBreeze

Please hold the contract up to the monitor so we can read it and advise accordingly.

Hmm. If you can see that, then maybe you can see this.
Thanks so much for your 'insight'.

[JMG]

Originally Posted by acmb05

Are you paying the utilities to the person you are buying the house from? If you are I would request copies of the bills before I paid them

You have a signed contract to buy the home from them and they can enforce it. If I were you I would go to a bank anyway or just sell the place, pay off the loan to the owner and pocket the difference.

As far as the trees, I would not put much weight behind what the neighbor says, he may just want the trees chopped down for the wood or he just dont like them. Have a professional come look at it.

No, I don't pay the owners utilities. The bank thing is a good idea, but don't you have to have exceptional credit to get a loan to pay off a home, regardless of equity? I'm not sure, also, that I have a right to sell the home, the contract states I don't own it until it's paid off entirely.
This is part of what confuses me, do I have equity ..or is it just considered 'rent'. I may need to speak to a lawyer or something, but I figured I could get good information from this forum beforehand. Thank you for your response and in advance if you choose to respond again.

[divona2000]

Quote "Another weird thing was that I am to keep insurance on the home, but the physical policy is to be held by them. I am also responsible for property taxes, but I have always paid a lump sum extra every month to cover this."

(I'm in MI, and you are in Indiana, so laws might be different, but...)
If you are paying for homeowner's insurance, BUT the policy is in the land contract holder's names...then if anything happens to the home, say, a fire, the insurance company is going to send the check to them not you. And what do you think they are going to do with said check? Give it to you to pay off your contract?
Your land contract should be on file, and the taxes in your name. Are you giving them extra money so they can pay taxes still in their name? You are losing out on a tax deduction there.
Read your contract carefully. You may be able to sell to to someone else on a land contract. You might be able to list it with a realty. It might also have a huge early-payoff penalty.
If you have a legal contract, you are the buyer, not a renter.

[pojo2]

Come on without seeing that contract NO ONE can give you advice. There are WAY to many answers depending on what the contract says and to sit here and try and list them all is meaningless, thus the advice to hold the contract to the screen is just a way of saying the same thing in fewer words.

It is not unusual at all for the seller to be a part of your insurance contract, they still own a part of the house that is at risk if something happens to it.

You have no idea what your contract says, if you are rent to own or contract sell or anything else but I bet the seller does.