Father Steals Equity

[scaredmom123]

What is the name of your state? PA

This is going to be long.

I am asking this question for a friend in PA. He bought a house approx. 7 years ago. At the time he had not so great credit so his father co-signed for him. There was never a deed to the home since it was built a long time ago. A deed needed to be created. The father said he would take care of getting that taken care of. My friend paid the down payment on the house. He got the closing cost money as a gift from his parents. They wrote a letter stating that they were giving him X amount of money as a gift for closing costs. They did this for their other son also. The agrement was that as soon as my friends credit was better he would refinance in his name only.

So, my friend gets the house and lives in it making all mortgage payments, paying all taxes and upgrades on the home for a little over 7 years. He does extensive yard work and landscaping, puts in a brand new kitchen, garage, finishes the basement, etc. He never refinances the house.

He decided in May of this year to sell his home. He puts the house on the market and all hell breaks loose with his father. The father had gotten into some money problems and when the father found out (after the appraisal) that my friend had $62,000 of equity in the house, he started with his demands for half of the equity. My friend is 37 years old and loves his father very much so he tried to work something out. They could not come to an agreement.

So, on the day of the closing ... he comes to find out that the deed was only put in his fathers name (even though he had been getting the bill for taxes and paying them all these years). He and his father have the same name. The big $62,000 equity check went to his father. His father pocketed the whole thing and refuses to speak to him at all. The whole family is on the outs because of this. Apparently the father has always been greedy with money and has taken it from wherever he can and "screwed" others in the family as well.

I read on this site that if your name is not on the deed then you're sh!t outta luck. I told my friend this, and he went and talked to an attorney. The attorney told him he did have a case and took a $500 retainer. This was about 6 weeks ago. He has not heard anything from the attorney, so he calls her today. She tells him that she called his father and the father said "He better not try to sue me or I'll sue him." So then the attorney told my friend that he really didn't have much of a case since the deed was in his fathers name only. She said that she thought she could resolve it by calling his father and talking to him. The father made statements to the attorney that were complete lies about my friend, and he is just sick over this whole mess.

He wants a relationship back with his mother and father, his mother calls crying and sends cards. His whole family is up in arms over this, they are on my friends side. He can't understand why his father would "screw" him in this way when the entire family is well aware that he paid the mortgage, taxes, remodeling, etc. on the house for all these years. He thought he could trust his father. Who would ever think parents would do something like this to their child? I know mine would never hurt me in this way.

So, to get to my questions ... Does anyone here see any way that my friend could possibly get at least half of that equity? He planned to use the equity to put into another house he had made a sale agreement on. Now, he lost money on that deal too. Does he have anything to go with here? Or is it simply since his name was not on the deed he gets nothing. Is there anything he can do? The father never had an interest in the house and their relationship was okay until he found out about that equity. If my friend would have not decided to sell the house at that time then there would never have been an issue. Please help! My friend is desperate for some answers.

[scaredmom123]

Doesn't anyone have a suggestion I can give him? Does he have NO legal recourse?

[PghREA]

Originally Posted by scaredmom123

Doesn't anyone have a suggestion I can give him? Does he have NO legal recourse?

If the deed is in the father's name, then it is the father's house.

The only other thing I would suggest is for the son to gather all his paper work and hire an attorney. Does he have proof that he contributed the down payment, a copy of the gift letter, mortgage statements and cancelled checks showing that he paid the mortgage and taxes. If so, maybe an attorney can convince the father to do the morally right thing.