JustJenny0512
Member
3. March 1, 2020, I entered into what I thought was a Rent with Option to Buy Contract with my landlord for the property with the following conditions:
The rent would be $1,000 per month and I would pay $300 per month on top of that, which would be put into a down payment deposit account until I had reached a $10,000 down payment, at which time I would purchase the house for $180,000 under an owner financed mortgage and my payments would drop to $901 per month, no interest until I paid the remaining $170,000 after the down payment was applied. I even paid a $1,000 deposit that I was told was to obtain sole rights to purchase the house after the $10,000 down payment was reached and that it couldn't be sold to anyone else, unless I decided I didn't want to buy the house. The house really needed some work, but that was ok with me because at 45 years old, I was given the opportunity to buy my own home for the first time and that was the best feeling in the world because I have been through some really bad shit in my life and I could finally build a new happy life here away from the torture of my past. Anyway, I met the landlord at the house to sign the papers and get the keys and he told me that because I was now buying the house, all the the maintenance and repairs were my responsibility and I believed him. He showed me the wall heaters and told me that I was not to turn them on under any circumstances unless I wanted the house to catch on fire and burn down and told me I would have to provide my own heating source and recommended installing a ductless heating and air system because he had one on each end of his 8,000sqft ranch home and it was cheaper to run than central h/a. He even put a piece of tape over the switch for the heaters on the main fuse box, like I have the oral comprehension of a 2 year old child and don't understand what "Don't turn the heaters on it will start a fire" means. As he was leaving, he said, "Well, the house is yours now, you can do whatever improvements you want to it, just don't tear it down until you've paid it off because it's my family home and I want to keep it standing until it doesn't have my name on the title anymore." Now, this man is like 70 years old and I can understand his nostalgia, so I felt kinda bad for him and was compelled to have a grandfather like trust in him from then on. He had also showed me the unfinished basement and told me that when I was ready to have the foundation redone and the basement finished, to call him and he would get his brother to do it for next to nothing. None of the windows in the house were completely insulated and boxed in, and 3 of the windows were double paned and had gunshot holes in them from what he said were "done by kids with BB guns". He told me not to worry, that whatever improvements I wanted to do to the house could be done by his brother. I had no idea at the time that all of those things were his responsibility by law and that he was bold faced lying to me that day. He also told me that the front property line was past the huge driveway/front yard area, which I just found out 6 months ago was a lie and that the front property line stopped at the front of the house, with not 1 inch past it and that my driveway/front yard areaq really belonged to the city and is a road that they just didn't finish. I poured, and spread 2 loads of gravel that I bought myself and 6 loads that were gifted to me by the neighbor across the street to create a better driveway and mowed the huge grassy front yard area on the other side of the driveway once a week, faithfully, every Spring and Summer since 2020 and come to find out, it was the city's property the whole time. I gave him $2,300 that day, $1,000 for that month's rent, $1,000 for the right to purchase deposit, and $300 for that month's payment into the down payment deposit account. When I gave him the $300, he said, "So you're going to pay that amount .over the rent? Because you know the faster you get the down payment paid, the faster it will be for you to finish buying the house." and I said "Yes, that's what we said was $300 on top of the rent to go toward the down payment, right? And he said, "Oh yeah, that was what we said." Which I also found out was a lie about 6 months ago. I was reading the rental agreement better and found where he had written himself that $300 each month from the rent to go toward the down payment, so in all actuality, legally I had been paying $600 toward the down payment which would have had me reaching the $10,000 17 months after I moved in which was July 2021. That means starting August 1, 2021, I should have been signing a purchase contract and every penny I paid after that should have counted as payments toward the $170,000 I had left to pay to own the home.
**** OK I am going to stop right here to clarify my honest beliefs about the situation after he left that day, before I found out about all the lies and deceipt. I was led by him to believe that because I had paid the $1,000 deposit to have sole rights to purchase the property and it couldn't be sold to anyone else unless I decided not to buy it, and the fact that I was investing in the purchase of the property by paying into the down payment, that I was in the same kind of mortgage type agreement like I would be buying a house with a bank loan, not that I had no more than renter's rights and he could kick me out with hardly no notice for any crap he wanted to make up on me at anytime if he wanted to and that if I had done any improvements to the property and then he kicked me out that I was basically screwed out of that money. He also made me believe he wasn't responsible to maintain any part of the property, that I was responsible since I was purchasing the property. Oh, that's only the beginning, wait until you read number 3.
The rent would be $1,000 per month and I would pay $300 per month on top of that, which would be put into a down payment deposit account until I had reached a $10,000 down payment, at which time I would purchase the house for $180,000 under an owner financed mortgage and my payments would drop to $901 per month, no interest until I paid the remaining $170,000 after the down payment was applied. I even paid a $1,000 deposit that I was told was to obtain sole rights to purchase the house after the $10,000 down payment was reached and that it couldn't be sold to anyone else, unless I decided I didn't want to buy the house. The house really needed some work, but that was ok with me because at 45 years old, I was given the opportunity to buy my own home for the first time and that was the best feeling in the world because I have been through some really bad shit in my life and I could finally build a new happy life here away from the torture of my past. Anyway, I met the landlord at the house to sign the papers and get the keys and he told me that because I was now buying the house, all the the maintenance and repairs were my responsibility and I believed him. He showed me the wall heaters and told me that I was not to turn them on under any circumstances unless I wanted the house to catch on fire and burn down and told me I would have to provide my own heating source and recommended installing a ductless heating and air system because he had one on each end of his 8,000sqft ranch home and it was cheaper to run than central h/a. He even put a piece of tape over the switch for the heaters on the main fuse box, like I have the oral comprehension of a 2 year old child and don't understand what "Don't turn the heaters on it will start a fire" means. As he was leaving, he said, "Well, the house is yours now, you can do whatever improvements you want to it, just don't tear it down until you've paid it off because it's my family home and I want to keep it standing until it doesn't have my name on the title anymore." Now, this man is like 70 years old and I can understand his nostalgia, so I felt kinda bad for him and was compelled to have a grandfather like trust in him from then on. He had also showed me the unfinished basement and told me that when I was ready to have the foundation redone and the basement finished, to call him and he would get his brother to do it for next to nothing. None of the windows in the house were completely insulated and boxed in, and 3 of the windows were double paned and had gunshot holes in them from what he said were "done by kids with BB guns". He told me not to worry, that whatever improvements I wanted to do to the house could be done by his brother. I had no idea at the time that all of those things were his responsibility by law and that he was bold faced lying to me that day. He also told me that the front property line was past the huge driveway/front yard area, which I just found out 6 months ago was a lie and that the front property line stopped at the front of the house, with not 1 inch past it and that my driveway/front yard areaq really belonged to the city and is a road that they just didn't finish. I poured, and spread 2 loads of gravel that I bought myself and 6 loads that were gifted to me by the neighbor across the street to create a better driveway and mowed the huge grassy front yard area on the other side of the driveway once a week, faithfully, every Spring and Summer since 2020 and come to find out, it was the city's property the whole time. I gave him $2,300 that day, $1,000 for that month's rent, $1,000 for the right to purchase deposit, and $300 for that month's payment into the down payment deposit account. When I gave him the $300, he said, "So you're going to pay that amount .over the rent? Because you know the faster you get the down payment paid, the faster it will be for you to finish buying the house." and I said "Yes, that's what we said was $300 on top of the rent to go toward the down payment, right? And he said, "Oh yeah, that was what we said." Which I also found out was a lie about 6 months ago. I was reading the rental agreement better and found where he had written himself that $300 each month from the rent to go toward the down payment, so in all actuality, legally I had been paying $600 toward the down payment which would have had me reaching the $10,000 17 months after I moved in which was July 2021. That means starting August 1, 2021, I should have been signing a purchase contract and every penny I paid after that should have counted as payments toward the $170,000 I had left to pay to own the home.
**** OK I am going to stop right here to clarify my honest beliefs about the situation after he left that day, before I found out about all the lies and deceipt. I was led by him to believe that because I had paid the $1,000 deposit to have sole rights to purchase the property and it couldn't be sold to anyone else unless I decided not to buy it, and the fact that I was investing in the purchase of the property by paying into the down payment, that I was in the same kind of mortgage type agreement like I would be buying a house with a bank loan, not that I had no more than renter's rights and he could kick me out with hardly no notice for any crap he wanted to make up on me at anytime if he wanted to and that if I had done any improvements to the property and then he kicked me out that I was basically screwed out of that money. He also made me believe he wasn't responsible to maintain any part of the property, that I was responsible since I was purchasing the property. Oh, that's only the beginning, wait until you read number 3.