Our seller keeps breaking our written land contract. What are our options? He sold our mineral rights to a company for 10years with the right to put things on our property(still hasn't let us know); didn't give us the tax bill with in 10 days, or the mortgage interest statement for our taxes. My biggest concern is the mineral rights thing, as far as I can see and research if the mineral rights aren't directly addressed in the contract they go with the land. What do we do now?

Did an attorney draw up the contract? Have a closing? Have an attorney read the contract and find out exactly what you are getting on the land lease. You say he "sold" your rights or did he "retain" the rights?

Yes and attorney drew up the agreement, yes we had a closing, no we haven't had an attorney look at the mineral rights thing, he leased the land and is getting compensated for it and gave them surface rights. And no he did not retain the rights in our agreement.

There should have been a mineral rights clause in the contract. If not, you need to get another attorney involved.

Well since the contract is already done your comment isn't very helpful, from what we've been told because it wasn't specified the rights are sold with the property. But thanks

First in a land contract, there is not a real "closing" and you don't own the property till the end of the contract.

Next there is no interest notice on a land contract to report on your taxes. You are merely paying on a contract, you don't have deed to the home nor is this a mortgage, it is just a contract.

So first it is not legal to claim interest from this on your taxes, so I would hope he did not give you a statement for it.

On the taxes, who is paying them,

Next he merely has to be able to sign the property over to you according to the contract at the fulfillment of the contract. So how long is your contract for, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, 15? The mineral right issue is an issue, that you may sue for,

Well he and his partner are the private lender on the contract and are charging us 6.5% for a 30 year mortgage, so there is about $11,000 in interest we just paid, and yes there was a closing we even submitted the first time home buyer credit and received it last June. We pay the property taxes but there has been issues with getting the bill from the seller in a timely fashion, so the contract had a stipulation that he was to send us the bill with in 10 days of receiving it. It's not a big deal, except it is just one more thing that he isn't doing, also that contract clearly stated that there was no lien or mortgage on the house, and there is. Again another item that isn't being up held.

First, if you have follow-up information or questions. Please use the Answer options not the Comments feature.

You stated this was a land contract agreement. That is different from a land purchase. As Chuck said, in a land contract, you do not own the property until the contract has been fulfilled. So this is either a land contract or they gave you a mortgage on the property.

Who drew up the contract, the seller's attorney? One of the first things you need to do check to see who has title to the property. If you are not on the deed then you cannot claim the first time buyer's credit, nor can you claim a deduction for interest or property taxes. If there is a lien and mortgage on the property, other than the loan they gave you, then you didn't buy the property.

Hello H:

I don't know. I sounds like the previous owners have retained ALL the rights of ownership, and you, the NEW owner, only seem to have the rights of a tenant...

So, if you HAD an attorney represent YOU, he did a really BAD job. The good news is that you can sue HIM for his faulty representation...

But I, like my compadres, think you used the sellers attorney, who didn't represent YOU. He represented THEM, and the deal he constructed is evidence of that.. So, you need to hire your OWN lawyer, and I'd do it TODAY.

excon