Sale Of Home During Lawsuit

[BSmithRay]

What is the name of your state? GA

My question is if it is possible to sell your home while you have an unrelated pending lawsuit against you, or would it only matter if you had a judgement against you?

[nextwife]

Depending upon the nature of the suit, and the amount of equity, I have seen title companies agree to "insure over" such an issue IF the seller was agreeable to them holding back an escrow of 1 1/2 times the potential claims exposure (potential total award if the seller lost). Example, a home in which the sellers were being sued by a contractor who they were refusing to pay due to very substandard work was in the process of being sold. The sellers were confident of their case, as was their attorney. The title company agreed to offer affirmative coverage in exchange for a hold back escrow of one and a half times the absolute TOTAL that the court could award if they had lost, which also allowed for the plaintiff being awarded court and attorney costs.

[BSmithRay]

Thanks for your quick reply! Your example is of someone being sued for a real estate related issue. I'm wondering if they could hold up the sale, for an issue unrelated to the home, such as an author suing another author over plagiarism or something like that. Would that have any power to hold up the sale?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by BSmithRay

Thanks for your quick reply! Your example is of someone being sued for a real estate related issue. I'm wondering if they could hold up the sale, for an issue unrelated to the home, such as an author suing another author over plagiarism or something like that. Would that have any power to hold up the sale?

**A: the answer is yes.