My Mother In Law STOLE My house!

[22crew]

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

Hi everyone, I am glad to have found this forum. OK here goes....about a year and a half ago my husband I were looking to sell our home and move to a bigger one. His mother approached us with the idea of her selling her home as well, and purchasing a large mother daughter type home together so she could retire.
We found the perfect home, a true mother daughter in that she had her own living space, complete with her own entrance, bathroom, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, ect. The house was over 6,000 sq feet, situated on 10 acres, our dream come true...or so we had thought
Anyway, we both sell our homes and move in. She insisted she wanted her side renovated completley so she proceeded to live with us while my husband did a complete renovation to her side, down to moving walls, new electric, plumbing, kitchen, bathroom, ect.
Let me just backtrack for one moment and tell you we moved into the home before we closed on it, we had the contract in place, ect but the closing didnt happen for a few months after we physically lived there.
Anyway, his mother has perfect credit so it was decided she would obtain the mortgage in her name therefor we would have a low interest rate. My husband and I put down 80,000 on the home and she put down 200,000 on the home. The deal was that my husband would make all the payments on the house, including mortgage, tax, ect as well as pay the household bills which we did totalling about 6,000 per month. We lived in the home for 10 months so that was another 60,000 we put into the house for the mortgage, ect, plus the work my husband did to the home was well over 40,000 in time, not to mention the money we layed out. I will also mention we paid for and had all home inspections, water tests, well tests, septic testes, ect done prior to moving in, all in our name and all paid for by us. And yes we have all the proof
Anyway....my monster in laws attorney handled our closing. Heres the bad part. We found out about 2 weeks after the clsoing that we were not named on the deed as co-owners to the home.
She refused to put us on only stating "well it will be yours when I die dont worry about it." Hello**************...I didnt sell my home, hand you all this money to buy this house and pay all your bills and mortgage to be your tenant!
Well, things went from bad to worse, the woman is a psychocase, stole my mail, called phone company pretending to be me cancelling my internet service, ect and my husband and I packed up the kids and moved out on our own accord. She promptly listed the home for sale for 80,000 more than we purchased for 10 months prior.
We retained an attorney immediatley and a lis pendens has been put in place and a lawsuit filed. Her attorney called mine trying to get us to remove the lis pendens in lue of her putting money in an escrow account. NOT HAPPENING!
Anyway, my lawyer is out of town for 3 days and I heard she has an offer on the home and thinks she can sell it by putting cash into an escrow. I just want to be sure she cannot as we did not lift the lis pendens and refuse to do so.
Thanks for listening!

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by 22crew

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

Hi everyone, I am glad to have found this forum. OK here goes....about a year and a half ago my husband I were looking to sell our home and move to a bigger one. His mother approached us with the idea of her selling her home as well, and purchasing a large mother daughter type home together so she could retire.
We found the perfect home, a true mother daughter in that she had her own living space, complete with her own entrance, bathroom, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, ect. The house was over 6,000 sq feet, situated on 10 acres, our dream come true...or so we had thought
Anyway, we both sell our homes and move in. She insisted she wanted her side renovated completley so she proceeded to live with us while my husband did a complete renovation to her side, down to moving walls, new electric, plumbing, kitchen, bathroom, ect.
Let me just backtrack for one moment and tell you we moved into the home before we closed on it, we had the contract in place, ect but the closing didnt happen for a few months after we physically lived there.
Anyway, his mother has perfect credit so it was decided she would obtain the mortgage in her name therefor we would have a low interest rate. My husband and I put down 80,000 on the home and she put down 200,000 on the home. The deal was that my husband would make all the payments on the house, including mortgage, tax, ect as well as pay the household bills which we did totalling about 6,000 per month. We lived in the home for 10 months so that was another 60,000 we put into the house for the mortgage, ect, plus the work my husband did to the home was well over 40,000 in time, not to mention the money we layed out. I will also mention we paid for and had all home inspections, water tests, well tests, septic testes, ect done prior to moving in, all in our name and all paid for by us. And yes we have all the proof
Anyway....my monster in laws attorney handled our closing. Heres the bad part. We found out about 2 weeks after the clsoing that we were not named on the deed as co-owners to the home.
She refused to put us on only stating "well it will be yours when I die dont worry about it." Hello**************...I didnt sell my home, hand you all this money to buy this house and pay all your bills and mortgage to be your tenant!
Well, things went from bad to worse, the woman is a psychocase, stole my mail, called phone company pretending to be me cancelling my internet service, ect and my husband and I packed up the kids and moved out on our own accord. She promptly listed the home for sale for 80,000 more than we purchased for 10 months prior.
We retained an attorney immediatley and a lis pendens has been put in place and a lawsuit filed. Her attorney called mine trying to get us to remove the lis pendens in lue of her putting money in an escrow account. NOT HAPPENING!
Anyway, my lawyer is out of town for 3 days and I heard she has an offer on the home and thinks she can sell it by putting cash into an escrow. I just want to be sure she cannot as we did not lift the lis pendens and refuse to do so.
Thanks for listening!

**A: wait for your attorney**************

[AlexandriaDumas]

You really have nothing to worry about in my opinion. If she's truly psyco as you say, she will be saying all sorts of things. Doesn't make them true.

What an awful story though. Your husband must be beside himself to have his mother do this to him. Did he have any inkling she was like this?

[JETX]

Originally Posted by 22crew

I just want to be sure she cannot as we did not lift the lis pendens and refuse to do so.

lis pendens
(lease pen-dense) n. Latin for "a suit pending," a written notice that a lawsuit has been filed which concerns the title to real property or some interest in that real property. The lis pendens (or notice of pending action) is filed with the clerk of the court, certified that it has been filed, and then recorded with the County Recorder. This gives notice to the defendant who owns real estate that there is a claim on the property, and the recording informs the general public (and particularly anyone interested in buying or financing the property) that there is this potential claim against it. The lis pendens must include a legal description of the real property, and the lawsuit must involve the property. Otherwise, if there is a petition to remove the lis pendens from real property not involved in the lawsuit, the plaintiff who originally recorded a false lis pendens will be subject to payment of attorney's fees as a penalty.

Though unlikely, in theory, she COULD sell the property to someone else... but that title transfer would NOT waive your pending lawsuit claim on the property. If the court were to confirm your claim... the new owner would have a claim against the seller.