I had a 7 yr verbal sales agreement in PA. I paid taxes twice yearly, and spent 6, 000 on siding etc. With two months left the land lord says I've been renting unless I come up with a large down payment... I wrote "mortgage payment" on checks I used each month ro pay what I thought was a mortgage. What rights do I have? Can I get my expenses back or do the cancelled checks prove intent?

You seriously need a real estate attorney and perhaps attempt to put a lien on the home.

The first issue is that many states do not recognize a verbal sales agreement on property, Most require all real estate says to be in written form, and contain certain requirements.

It is possible that without written proof, there is little you can do. You do not have a mortgage document to prove payment to, the other side can just say, even if it was,the price is now twice as much.

Why would you risk your home on a verbal agreement? As noted, even writing mortgae payment on the checks is unlikely to be considered proof of anything. A mortgage is a recorded note.

Unless you can show in court that you had a sales agreement you are a renter.

Pennsylvania has codified the "statute of frauds" at 33 P.S. Sec. 1. Basically, this statute requires that all conveyances of an interest in property, must be in the form of a signed writing in order to be enforceable in a court of law. As a result, a verbal agreement for the sale of property is unenforceable.

Hello rik,

the land lord says I've been renting unless I come up with a large down payment..
As you've discovered, you need something in WRITING... Well, maybe your landlord doesn't know the law any better than you do, so maybe you can GET him to write something.

Tell him that you have a LARGE down payment to give him, but can't give it to him UNLESS he puts the deal in writing. If he does, take that to an attorney, and you've bought yourself a house...

Oh, about that "large" down payment you promised.. It WAS a verbal promise after all. Once he ADMITS in writing that there was a deal, the ORIGINAL terms of that deal WILL apply, whatever they were.

Excon

Even though agreements for the sale of real estate are required to be in writing to be enforceable, very often a court will find a verbal agreement enforceable on a different basis, such as the fact that you made substantial improvements to the property based on that verbal agreement. So get yourself a real estate attorney immediately to see if you have a case.