What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Ohio
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm writing this on behalf of my mother. The bank, unfortunately, began foreclosure proceedings in July of 2003. She already had an attorney on retainer due to another matter (a spousal support dispute with her former husband), and he took on this matter as well. She has become unsatisfied with his work on the original matter, but it is the foreclosure in which his behavior has truly become unacceptable. Shortly after the foreclosure began, she decided she'd rather be rid of the house and would sell it. She found a buyer (a friend of mine) and they worked out a deal in principle for him to purchase the house. She informed her attorney, who said he would write a purchase agreement and send it to her. Nothing came. On several more occasions she asked about the purchase agreement, and he said he had ALREADY WRITTEN IT and would send it to her that day. Again, nothing came. After four or five repititions of this pattern it became clear that she wasn't going to get the purchase agreement out of her attorney anytime soon, so the buyer (my friend) agreed to write it, and her attorney could then review it. She informed her attorney via e-mail that her buyer would write the purchase agreement, and the attorney responded that she shouldn't do it this way, that he (the attorney) would do it, saying "that's why YOU have a lawyer." Of course, this was the last she heard of it. The next two times she spoke to him, he again told her he had already written a purchase agreement, and again would send it to her. All of this happened over the course of a year and a half. To this day, she has received nothing resembling a purchase agreement. Meanwhile, the payoff amount necessary to satisfy the bank has increased by more than $20,000, because of taxes, mortgage insurance and interest -- the bank won't accept payments while the house is in foreclosure. This has wiped out the equity she had in the house, and the buyer is understandably no longer interested. She lost her buyer and she lost her equity because her lawyer insisted he be the one to write the purchase agreement (this on the few occasions she could talk to him -- most of her inquiries on this matter were simply ignored), but never produced one.
She has no defense to the foreclosure, so the only option was to sell it or let the bank take it. The attorney did file a demand for jury trial in March 2004, and nothing has happened on the case since, but now she has no chance of getting any of the equity out of her home she had when she decided to sell it and found a buyer.
Just like most of the other lawyers I read about here, his office usually blows her off when she calls, and calls are unreturned.
She's understandably pretty angry about losing her buyer and over $20k in equity. Any thoughts?
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm writing this on behalf of my mother. The bank, unfortunately, began foreclosure proceedings in July of 2003. She already had an attorney on retainer due to another matter (a spousal support dispute with her former husband), and he took on this matter as well. She has become unsatisfied with his work on the original matter, but it is the foreclosure in which his behavior has truly become unacceptable. Shortly after the foreclosure began, she decided she'd rather be rid of the house and would sell it. She found a buyer (a friend of mine) and they worked out a deal in principle for him to purchase the house. She informed her attorney, who said he would write a purchase agreement and send it to her. Nothing came. On several more occasions she asked about the purchase agreement, and he said he had ALREADY WRITTEN IT and would send it to her that day. Again, nothing came. After four or five repititions of this pattern it became clear that she wasn't going to get the purchase agreement out of her attorney anytime soon, so the buyer (my friend) agreed to write it, and her attorney could then review it. She informed her attorney via e-mail that her buyer would write the purchase agreement, and the attorney responded that she shouldn't do it this way, that he (the attorney) would do it, saying "that's why YOU have a lawyer." Of course, this was the last she heard of it. The next two times she spoke to him, he again told her he had already written a purchase agreement, and again would send it to her. All of this happened over the course of a year and a half. To this day, she has received nothing resembling a purchase agreement. Meanwhile, the payoff amount necessary to satisfy the bank has increased by more than $20,000, because of taxes, mortgage insurance and interest -- the bank won't accept payments while the house is in foreclosure. This has wiped out the equity she had in the house, and the buyer is understandably no longer interested. She lost her buyer and she lost her equity because her lawyer insisted he be the one to write the purchase agreement (this on the few occasions she could talk to him -- most of her inquiries on this matter were simply ignored), but never produced one.
She has no defense to the foreclosure, so the only option was to sell it or let the bank take it. The attorney did file a demand for jury trial in March 2004, and nothing has happened on the case since, but now she has no chance of getting any of the equity out of her home she had when she decided to sell it and found a buyer.
Just like most of the other lawyers I read about here, his office usually blows her off when she calls, and calls are unreturned.
She's understandably pretty angry about losing her buyer and over $20k in equity. Any thoughts?