Foreclosing On Taxes With A Mortgage
I have a weird situation. the town is about to foreclose on a property for over 18k worth of back taxes. the guy that owns it has a mortgage that he doesnt know who holds and has not paid it in 5 years because he hasnt known who to pay.
the town did a title search on the property and could not find a current mortgage.
the owner wants to sell to me but has had a phone call from a collection agency ( who is not of title) the old mortgage co was Avco, who went belly up (explaining why there is "a lost mortage"
are they legally allowed to try and collect money? the town was going to foreclose and take the prop without finding this lost mortgage co and some how fill out a satisfaction of mortgage.
My main question is this, can i have my attorney have the owner fill out affidavit saying that he believs that the mortgage has been satisfied to his knowledge(which is true because he hasnt paid in 5 years and nobody has contacted him in over 5 years until a random collection agency stating that he owns them money)
there is another twist, the :owner" that i have been tlaking about isnt on the deed. he just holds the mortgage and somebody else is on the deed (which will deed it to me for nothing). the other guy is only on the mortgage because in 1991 he quitclaimed his interest to this other guy who is on the deed.
as of right now what we are trying to do is buy this house for the taxes owed and flip it right away. it is in the hands of the attorney right now and he is trying to get the guy on the mortgage to sign an affidavit and that will be that.
i know this is really confusing and i may not have explained it very well but any input at all would be really helpful. thanks a lot, Ryan
thank you very much for the response. it is a instate flip we are actually assigning it to somebody else so we will never be on title. The buyers attorney is satisfied with the affidavit. with that bit of info does it change things?
thank you very much. how often do these "collection agencies" come after people for money that has been lost for a long time? do they just pick from a stack of motgages and go for it?
thanks you for the response. There is a not of room to negotiate because of major structural damage. the house is actually only worth the tax amount. I made it clear to the owner that i am not guiding him to do anything and that if he reads and signs the affidavit then its his choice. the town is going to foreclose on him within a week so he doesnt care if they try to come back at him at a later time. he said if they come back at his later he wont pay that either. He said this "collection agency" said that he owes 40 but if he gives them a check for 20 that will be fine. that doesnt sound to professional to me. is that a normal response? we do not have title companies around here, we have lawyers. i am strictly assigning my contract to somebody else for a fee. What is the worst thing that could happen? the "collection agency" finds out that the house was sold and they go after the guy with the mortgage and try to demand money and he says well i dont have it so i cant pay you? im trying to get the full picture. thanks again, Ryan[ Edited by ryand on Date 02/17/2005 ]
sounds good. thanks for the advice