My husband and I entered into a Lease to purchase agreement with someone who labels himself as Lessor when indeed he is the subleasers of the owner of the property. We had given him $10,000 as downpayment to purchase the home on the bases that he would help us increase credit score and be approved by 12 months to purchase the home.

Now that 12 month lease is up and credit score increased he is telling us that it has not increased enough for $280K to purchase the home. Now he says that he is keeping the $10K.

Can he do this since he was not the owner of the home? The Lease Purchase agreement was in his name (the subleaser) which he did not tell us at the time of signing. He represented himself as the owner (Lessor) in the agreement.

Do we have a leg to stand on trying to retrieve our $10,000 back that we put down as downpayment of the home? THe lease states that we forefit the $10,000 if we do not uphold the obligation of the lease. This person is a mortgage broker and we were working with him to get approved for the loan to purchase the home. And we had done all that he recommended to be approved by the end of the lease term. However now he is stating we can not get approved and he's running with the money.

NOt only that, we have been approved for another home and are soon to close soon. That home price is $225K.

The real owners of the home do not know that we are soon to move out and the subleaser did not feel his obligation to sell the own by us.

WHAT A MESS! Can anyone help

Hello S:

Sounds to me like he cheated you. He can't sell a house he doesn't own. Where I come from, that's fraud. Tell him that if you don't have your money within 24 hours, you're going to the cops.

excon

I agree with excon.

Sounds like there are a whole lot of things that he shouldn't have done. I think I would get consultation with a Real Estate Attorney on this one. Expect to spend some money, but I think you will get a lot more out of it than it costs.