Early loan payoff problem

[jax3342]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

We bought our home 20 years ago. Seller carried the mortgage. He passed away. Continued making payments including $22,000 in extra principal in 2006 to the widow. She had said she was in bad finanical shape and would we consider an early lump sum final payment. We said we would if we ever had extra money. She passed away about the time we came into some money. We approached her son 5 months after she passed away asking if he would consider taking a lump sum discounted payoff. He said he would and we agreed on a payoff amount. I wrote on the face of the check "FINAL Payment on the mortgage at and put in our address". He deposited the check and we sent him the release paperwork. After some months went by and not hearing from him we called him and he said he needed previous payment information for his taxes. We provided all the information to his attorney and still didn't hear from him until last night. He called and said he didn't realize how much was left on the mortgage and he wanted to revisit our mortgage payoff amount with the intention of getting more money from us. We have gone 8 months after the final agreed to payoff amount and now we find ourselves in this mess. Where do we stand? Thank you, Jack

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

We bought our home 20 years ago. Seller carried the mortgage. He passed away. Continued making payments including $22,000 in extra principal in 2006 to the widow. She had said she was in bad finanical shape and would we consider an early lump sum final payment. We said we would if we ever had extra money. She passed away about the time we came into some money. We approached her son 5 months after she passed away asking if he would consider taking a lump sum discounted payoff. He said he would and we agreed on a payoff amount. I wrote on the face of the check "FINAL Payment on the mortgage at and put in our address". He deposited the check and we sent him the release paperwork. After some months went by and not hearing from him we called him and he said he needed previous payment information for his taxes. We provided all the information to his attorney and still didn't hear from him until last night. He called and said he didn't realize how much was left on the mortgage and he wanted to revisit our mortgage payoff amount with the intention of getting more money from us. We have gone 8 months after the final agreed to payoff amount and now we find ourselves in this mess. Where do we stand? Thank you, Jack

**A: you stand in the same place you were when you wrote the check 8 months ago. At what point would you think you need your own attorney?

 

[jax3342]

We have our own attorney who will be on vacation for another two weeks. We just wanted to try to get an idea what we were facing. Thanks for your help, Jack

 

[Cedrus]

Was there any wording in the purchase contract about early payoff?

You and the son had a verbal agreement for an early payoff.

My gut feeling is that writing "Final payment" on the check will not hold up in court.

 

[DanDolfn]

My gut feeling is that writing "Final payment" on the check will not hold up in court.

That's not necessarily true.

I was involved in a case once where my company had received two quotes from a moving company to perform a job at a particular price, one for the complete move and one for a partial move. They did the partial move and tried to bill us for the complete move.

After a series of letters, they asked us to pay at least what we thought was right. We paid for the partial move and wrote on the check "payment in full."

When they sued us for the balance, the case was dismissed because the check had been cashed with a "payment in full" notation even tho the amount was clearly in dispute.

This was in Florida and other states and other situations might not be the same.

 

[HomeGuru]

My gut feeling is that writing "Final payment" on the check will not hold up in court.

That's not necessarily true.

I was involved in a case once where my company had received two quotes from a moving company to perform a job at a particular price, one for the complete move and one for a partial move. They did the partial move and tried to bill us for the complete move.

After a series of letters, they asked us to pay at least what we thought was right. We paid for the partial move and wrote on the check "payment in full."

When they sued us for the balance, the case was dismissed because the check had been cashed with a "payment in full" notation even tho the amount was clearly in dispute.

This was in Florida and other states and other situations might not be the same.

**A: you are mixing apples and oranges here. Your example is a consumer service issue and the OP's involves a real property mortgage issue.