ne1helpme?
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? pa
it seems that a friend of ours had passed away and now we have problems. we were living with him to help take care of him since his wife had passed away and he was disabled. he passed away 4/3/2004. my wife and i are executors and benificiaries of his will. he left his estate to us. we decided we wanted to keep his house. we were instructed to pay off his creditors (credit card companies, ect..) since there was no liquid assets to pay them off. they said that if we did not, they would have to sell the house and use the money that was left to settle all outstanding debts, and anything left over would go to us.
we paid his funeral, ~$12,000 to credit card companies and other misc. bills. we paid the estate for his personal belongings as well. we also made the final 4 payments (about $2000) that were not covered by the insurance that he had on the mortgage (he was allowed to skip 1 payment/year). the appraisal came back at $60,000 for the residence. i specifically asked if there were any liens on the property ( i have emails as proof). i wanted to make sure that there were no liens that we would aquire with the property. the attorneys did a title search and it came back that there were 2 liens. one from 1989 and one from 1999. they determined that the liens were satisfied. we transfered the property at the recorder of deeds and as of December 2004, the property has been in our names.
now the interesting part...
we went to re-finance the property so we could complete the estate expenses and start doing some "fixing up" of the house. we have invested ~$2000 so far making improvements on the house. we have been declined the refinance/home equity loan because we find out that the 1999 lien was a mortgage that had never been satisfied. he had a mortgage for $32,000 and stopped paying on it. now the payoff for this lien is $61,000 from all of the interest from 6 years!
i called my attorney, and find out that she is "no longer there" and no specifics of why. the lawyer that i now deal with directly (previous partner) has merged with another law firm. i have a meeting with him next week to discuss my "options".
my question is, since i was told incorrect information, are they at all responsible? i would have never placed a property valued at $60,000 with a lien of $61,000 into our names and payed out of pocket over $22,000 for this! it seems that now i am responsible for this lien since the property is now in my name. i also find it annoying that i have to pay $200/hour to get this resolved for a mistake that they made. do you think that she was terminated for the mistake and this was a way of covering their mistake? if i decide now that i do not want the property and want all of my money back, i do not see how they would get the money from the creditors that it was paid to. i am sure that the lien holder would be legally first to be paid if the property was sold. if this is the case, could i go after the attorney for all of the lost money? could they be responsible for any other expenses as well?
any and all help would be greatly appreciated!
thank you
c
it seems that a friend of ours had passed away and now we have problems. we were living with him to help take care of him since his wife had passed away and he was disabled. he passed away 4/3/2004. my wife and i are executors and benificiaries of his will. he left his estate to us. we decided we wanted to keep his house. we were instructed to pay off his creditors (credit card companies, ect..) since there was no liquid assets to pay them off. they said that if we did not, they would have to sell the house and use the money that was left to settle all outstanding debts, and anything left over would go to us.
we paid his funeral, ~$12,000 to credit card companies and other misc. bills. we paid the estate for his personal belongings as well. we also made the final 4 payments (about $2000) that were not covered by the insurance that he had on the mortgage (he was allowed to skip 1 payment/year). the appraisal came back at $60,000 for the residence. i specifically asked if there were any liens on the property ( i have emails as proof). i wanted to make sure that there were no liens that we would aquire with the property. the attorneys did a title search and it came back that there were 2 liens. one from 1989 and one from 1999. they determined that the liens were satisfied. we transfered the property at the recorder of deeds and as of December 2004, the property has been in our names.
now the interesting part...
we went to re-finance the property so we could complete the estate expenses and start doing some "fixing up" of the house. we have invested ~$2000 so far making improvements on the house. we have been declined the refinance/home equity loan because we find out that the 1999 lien was a mortgage that had never been satisfied. he had a mortgage for $32,000 and stopped paying on it. now the payoff for this lien is $61,000 from all of the interest from 6 years!
i called my attorney, and find out that she is "no longer there" and no specifics of why. the lawyer that i now deal with directly (previous partner) has merged with another law firm. i have a meeting with him next week to discuss my "options".
my question is, since i was told incorrect information, are they at all responsible? i would have never placed a property valued at $60,000 with a lien of $61,000 into our names and payed out of pocket over $22,000 for this! it seems that now i am responsible for this lien since the property is now in my name. i also find it annoying that i have to pay $200/hour to get this resolved for a mistake that they made. do you think that she was terminated for the mistake and this was a way of covering their mistake? if i decide now that i do not want the property and want all of my money back, i do not see how they would get the money from the creditors that it was paid to. i am sure that the lien holder would be legally first to be paid if the property was sold. if this is the case, could i go after the attorney for all of the lost money? could they be responsible for any other expenses as well?
any and all help would be greatly appreciated!
thank you
c