What is the name of your state? Virginia
I am looking for advice- My husband and I have been having marital problems and decided, upon the advice of our therapist, to move out of a stressful living situation to try and re-kindle our marriage in a new environment. I was offered a job about four hours away and we listed our house on the market to sell. Our "plan" was to sell the old house and buy a new one in the new location. I started my new job and leased an apartment temporarily while my husband stayed in the old location.
In the meantime, we (I) found a house in our anticipated new location which I loved, and I asked my husband to put a contract on it with me. I now know that this was a bad idea and may have lead to our total demise.
The contract was contingent on the home inspection, which revealed some serious defects with the plumbing. We wanted to walk away from the contract at that point but our realtor, lender and their broker told us that it was too late- that we would face being sued by all of them- as well as the sellers- if we backed out due to the plumbing- and that we should seek legal advice if we wanted to back out of the contract.
Well, we did seek the advice of a lawyer- it turns out the he is close friends with our real estate agent and lender- I did not know until just recently. I believe that the lawyer was acting according to his code of ethics, but I also have some speculative doubts.
The lawyer told us that we did not have the right to back out of the contract, we only had the right to request that the seller remedy the situation in some way.
They opted to offer to re-plumb the entire house for $7K. Because of the nature of re-plumbing an entire house (removing ceilings/tiles/drywall) I was concerned that the house would not be restored to its original condition and I requested a release of contract at that time. The lawyer advised that the seller could opt to have the work done and that the house could legally be restored to a new condition that was as "close to original as possible." However, the sellers wanted us to sign an amendment stating that their offer to re-plumb was acceptable. We did not sign immediately as the lawyer told us that we had three days to respond.
We did not feel comfortable signing an amendment to the initial contract that could force us to buy a house that could have disturbing cosmetic defects and may alter its value as an investment. The lawyer advised us that we would be in material breach of contract if we did not sign after three days.
However, at the same time, we received notification from our lender that our financing was pending due to a 58% debt to income ratio. We decided to wait for 48 hours before signing the amendment to see if our financing would fall through- we knew that we would not be in breach of the contract if we were denied financing through no fault of our own. 58% debt to income is a pretty risky investment for any lender to take and we hoped to not be approved.
This was not the case- we were approved much to our surprise as our own calculations showed that there was no possible way for us to make the payments on it at 58%. I requested to see a copy of the loan application, which our lender filled out based upon a meeting with me that lasted less than 5 minutes- we never signed or agreed to anything in regards to the lender. Much of the information that he collected came second hand through our realtor's conversations with him at various times.
The lender refused to send me a copy, so I requested it from the loan processor who had also called me previously- she would not give me a copy either, but gave me the name of his supervisor. I called her- she would not give me a copy either. I researched their HQ info on line and called their main offices out of state. I told them about the situation and that I would report them to the Federal Trade Commission as predatory lenders if I did not receive a copy of my application. It was faxed immediately, and, as I suspected, it contained fraudulent information.
In the meantime, my husband decided that this was an even more stressful situation than he had bargained for and he retained an attorney in our old town and intends to file for divorce. His attorney sent a letter to the lender and my attorney stating that all of his assets were in his name only, they were purchased before our marriage (which is true), that he has no intention of moving from the area, his home has been taken off of the market, that I do not have permission to make any decisions on our joint behalf, and that we are pending a divorce after separation.
The lender called me to state that we were obviously not going to be financed at this point, but that he believes that we are now in material breach of contract and that the sellers can still sue me as an individual... is this true? Can I really lose my whole life all at once?
What can I expect to actually happen to me as a result of all of these events? I am currently seeking new representation as my attorney does not represent family law matters, only, it is a very small town and I am having difficulty finding anyone to represent my case. Can it get any better than this!?!
In the meantime, please advise. Thank you.
I am looking for advice- My husband and I have been having marital problems and decided, upon the advice of our therapist, to move out of a stressful living situation to try and re-kindle our marriage in a new environment. I was offered a job about four hours away and we listed our house on the market to sell. Our "plan" was to sell the old house and buy a new one in the new location. I started my new job and leased an apartment temporarily while my husband stayed in the old location.
In the meantime, we (I) found a house in our anticipated new location which I loved, and I asked my husband to put a contract on it with me. I now know that this was a bad idea and may have lead to our total demise.
The contract was contingent on the home inspection, which revealed some serious defects with the plumbing. We wanted to walk away from the contract at that point but our realtor, lender and their broker told us that it was too late- that we would face being sued by all of them- as well as the sellers- if we backed out due to the plumbing- and that we should seek legal advice if we wanted to back out of the contract.
Well, we did seek the advice of a lawyer- it turns out the he is close friends with our real estate agent and lender- I did not know until just recently. I believe that the lawyer was acting according to his code of ethics, but I also have some speculative doubts.
The lawyer told us that we did not have the right to back out of the contract, we only had the right to request that the seller remedy the situation in some way.
They opted to offer to re-plumb the entire house for $7K. Because of the nature of re-plumbing an entire house (removing ceilings/tiles/drywall) I was concerned that the house would not be restored to its original condition and I requested a release of contract at that time. The lawyer advised that the seller could opt to have the work done and that the house could legally be restored to a new condition that was as "close to original as possible." However, the sellers wanted us to sign an amendment stating that their offer to re-plumb was acceptable. We did not sign immediately as the lawyer told us that we had three days to respond.
We did not feel comfortable signing an amendment to the initial contract that could force us to buy a house that could have disturbing cosmetic defects and may alter its value as an investment. The lawyer advised us that we would be in material breach of contract if we did not sign after three days.
However, at the same time, we received notification from our lender that our financing was pending due to a 58% debt to income ratio. We decided to wait for 48 hours before signing the amendment to see if our financing would fall through- we knew that we would not be in breach of the contract if we were denied financing through no fault of our own. 58% debt to income is a pretty risky investment for any lender to take and we hoped to not be approved.
This was not the case- we were approved much to our surprise as our own calculations showed that there was no possible way for us to make the payments on it at 58%. I requested to see a copy of the loan application, which our lender filled out based upon a meeting with me that lasted less than 5 minutes- we never signed or agreed to anything in regards to the lender. Much of the information that he collected came second hand through our realtor's conversations with him at various times.
The lender refused to send me a copy, so I requested it from the loan processor who had also called me previously- she would not give me a copy either, but gave me the name of his supervisor. I called her- she would not give me a copy either. I researched their HQ info on line and called their main offices out of state. I told them about the situation and that I would report them to the Federal Trade Commission as predatory lenders if I did not receive a copy of my application. It was faxed immediately, and, as I suspected, it contained fraudulent information.
In the meantime, my husband decided that this was an even more stressful situation than he had bargained for and he retained an attorney in our old town and intends to file for divorce. His attorney sent a letter to the lender and my attorney stating that all of his assets were in his name only, they were purchased before our marriage (which is true), that he has no intention of moving from the area, his home has been taken off of the market, that I do not have permission to make any decisions on our joint behalf, and that we are pending a divorce after separation.
The lender called me to state that we were obviously not going to be financed at this point, but that he believes that we are now in material breach of contract and that the sellers can still sue me as an individual... is this true? Can I really lose my whole life all at once?
What can I expect to actually happen to me as a result of all of these events? I am currently seeking new representation as my attorney does not represent family law matters, only, it is a very small town and I am having difficulty finding anyone to represent my case. Can it get any better than this!?!
In the meantime, please advise. Thank you.