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Hello! My ex husband is living in our home and has not paid the mortgage at all and the house is in foreclosure. He moved his girlfriend and her mother in as well, and none of them are paying anything towards the house. I am still 50% owner on the house and would like to charge rent and get half (since I am half owner and they are living there rent-free on my credit!). Is there something I can do do get this, or at least file with the courts?
Unfortunately since your ex is an owner of the house he can let anyone live there under any terms. Your only option is to sue him after the foreclosure for any costs you may have in connection with the foreclosure.
I don't know the legal situation
You probably have a very good chance if you go to court
But the lawyer cost will probably eat all the profit from getting rent from them, and you will be fighting people you live with.
Can you explain the ownership situation ?
After the divorce, who owns the house? Did you not agree about the mortgage ?
Even without knowing the details, I can tell you, you do not want them to pay rent by court order that can only end bad( both sides suspecting the other side for theft, trying to prove wrong doing in court when living together,fighting, screaming just watch the War of the Roses movie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Roses_%28film%29 )
If you go to court it should be only to evict them, and then get normal roommates
You might be able to use the threat of eviction to threat him into paying some of the mortgage/ and his girlfriend mom paying rent, but that really depends on the specific situation and your chance of actually evicting them
The ex-husband is an owner of the house. An owner can't be evicted except by foreclosure. The OP can't evict her co-owner.Quote:
Originally Posted by BenAssa
I can't see her having any chance in court.
From my understanding a situation of co-ownership after a divorce is uncommon, and even if it is the case can be changed. Anyway, I can think of several cases where a person is evicted from a property he has a large share of (co-ops/ companies mostly) though 50% is quite high, and I'm sure the court would prefer them to deal with it themselves
I'm not really sure what you're talking about here. In this case the OP and her ex-husband are co-owners. If the divorce provided that the ex-husband had to sell the property and pay some of the proceeds to the OP then she can sue him for the value of that amount after the foreclosure is complete. However since the property is in foreclosure it appears unlikely that he will have any assets from which to pay her.Quote:
Originally Posted by BenAssa
If the divorce provided that the ex-husband refinance and buy out the OP's share of the house then she can sue him for the value she lost when he failed to follow the court order. But again, since the property is in foreclosure it appears unlikely that he will have any assets from which to pay her.
If the OP would give us a little more information about her situation, such as the requirements of the divorce, then we might be able to give her a more detailed answer. But I can't see any scenario where she would be successful in suing either her ex-husband, his girlfriend or the girlfriend's mother for rent.
First to the OP I am sorry while we pride ourself in good legal answers, and not to become a trash site like so many others, anyone can answer but we try to note when a answer is totally wrong.
Lisa is correct, you can not evict a co owner or anyone they have allowed to stay there.
What is the plan on the home, is it for sale,
No, she can't. But it's a matter of terminology. Either it should be done in the context of the divorce case or she would bring a new suit against him for parition sale of the property. In dividing the proceeds of the sale, she might ask that he be assessed a reasonable amount for the fair market value of his use of the property.Quote:
Originally Posted by LisaB4657
Thank you for the responses. We are 50/50 owners of the house. I have not been living there since August 2008 but am still a legal owner of the house. He was supposedly trying to save the house so in the divorce ppwk, I had to give him until Sept. 2010 and then he had to tell me at that time what was being done. That being said, I gave him the time and he to this day doesn't get back to me on the house. That being said, I think I have no choice but to file Chapter 7 to be released from the house (he hasn't paid on the house since August 2008 and my credit has been bashed by him for the past 3 yrs almost) and to avoid the bank coming after me for half of the amount. The mortgage is higher than the house is valued now so there is no selling it unfortunately.
As for evicting her and her mother, I am still half owner of the house and should have a say as to who lives in it. They are not paying rent, and are not even working. I understand that he does live there and is half owner, but there has to be something I can do. I am taking him to court for contempt already and my attorney is thinking about going after him for back rent on the house. Can this even be done?
On the remote possibility that the bank will come after you for a deficiency? That seems to be extremely premature, it seems to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by jkugel70
No, no... contempt is for a plethra of things that he has not done during the last year... payments to school, etc. Ppwk was signed 9/09 and there have been mulitple things he decided he didn't need to do. The house being one of them.
Trying to find, legally, where I stand and what can be done. I feel like I'm the one over the barrel with no way out except for Chapter 7, which will get them all kicked out of the house. I'm fine with that too, but is that my only option here?
How do you figure bankruptcy will get them kicked out? If the house is indeed upside down, the trustee would have no interest in evicting them. And the bank can evict only when the foreclosure is complete.Quote:
Originally Posted by jkugel70
For that matter, why should you care, except to put someone in who will pay rent? If that's what you want to do, yes you have another option: take your ex to court to require that the place be rented out to someone who will pay rent.
Okay, so basically the only option I have then, so the bank won't come after me, is to file Chapter 7 so when the bank does finally foreclose and tries to come after him for the money, and then they can't come after me for the $80K deficit that is owed on the mortgage or the rest of the mortgage loan, correct? I think that's my only option.
I thought that on a Chapter 7 that when I am taken off the house, the bank will kick out whomever is living there. Is that not the case? Maybe I'm not understanding that process fully...
What part of what I just wrote don't you understand? As I said, no, that's not your only option; in fact it isn't a very good option. You can take your ex to state court.Quote:
Originally Posted by jkugel70
No, I don't think you are. Filing a Chapter 7 petition won't speed up or slow down the foreclosure process. And, as I said, the bank probably can't kick out the current occupants until the foreclosure is complete.Quote:
Originally Posted by jkugel70
You do understand, I hope, that despite the fact that "bank" is a part of the word "bankruptcy", the bankruptcy process doesn't necessarily7 involve a bank?
That I do understand. There are more things than just the house for filing Chapter 7. He owes money for back taxes that he hasn't paid and he was supposed to pay, but didn't. This was in our divorce ppwk as well and another contempt issue.
What would I take him to state court for? As you can see, I'm not well versed in what the rights are but I am trying to learn.
My credit is shot. I am very well aware of this. I am trying to figure out what my next move should be in order to start to rebuild it and come out from him. Having the house in my name and him not doing anything, living there rent free with no intention to pay is not going to do anything for my credit but keep it bad. He supposedly has an attorney that is working on the house and getting the original deed ppwk, which HSBC is not coming up with. I was also never served with the ppwk nor notified of anything from the bank.
My goals... I am trying to avoid the bank coming after me and wanting hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as have the IRS not collect from me. He was supposed to pay that and hasn't. I need to get my credit in a good position. I had great credit until the separation/divorce. Now... I don't even think I could finance a toaster, let alone a car, without a cosigner or something.
1. To force him to do what he should have done following the divorce.Quote:
Originally Posted by jkugel70
2. To make him collect rent and apply it to the mortgage
If you filed bankruptcy, that wouldn't "take your name off" of the title. It would merely prevent the bank from suing you for a deficiency. I am suggesting you cross the bankruptcy bridge when you come to it.Quote:
Originally Posted by jkugel70
And as far as the IRS is concerned, taxes are generally not dischargeable in bankruptcy anyway.
Okay, so I am already taking him for contempt in which the house will be addressed as well, so that will be addressed already. At least I'm doing something right! Thank you for the suggestion on having him collect rent! As a sidenote, since I am still part owner of the house, shouldn't I be entitled to keys on the home as well as codes? When I left, I gave him my set of keys.
That bankruptcy bridge is coming... extremely soon. I was thinking of doing it next month. That's why I'm asking about my rights. I want to be sure I am making the right decision. As for the IRS, from what the bankruptcy lawyer said, we would start with a chapter 13 first and the IRS would come back to us to tell us how much will be included in the bankruptcy. He said that since it was owed from the 2006 and 2007 taxes, we needed to wait until after April 15th of this year to do the bankruptcy. Once that is decided, we would change it to a Chapter 7.
What does your divorce paperwork say specific to this house? In my divorce I kept the house but I owed my ex wife 50% of the equity in the house to my ex wife at the time of our divorce meaning that even if the home's value when up or down I owed her a set amount. I was also required to refinance it to get it out of her name on the mortgage.
Hello j:Quote:
Originally Posted by jkugel70
Having read the WHOLE thread, I think you have the WRONG lawyer. He DOESN'T know real estate law, and that's pretty important in your case. I'd get me another one.
excon
It says "The parties own jointly the marital home located at..... The wife agrees to quitclaim deed her share of the home to the husband upon presentation of the deed from the husband who shall have the deed recorded, which shall be done within 30 days (30 days was 10/4/09). The husband shall be responsible for paying the mortgage and expenses related to the home, including but not limited to real estate taxes, capital gains taxes, assessment, association fees, and insurance including all said expenses which may have accrued prior to this agreement. The husband shall indemnify and hold the wife harmless from these expenses until the house is refinanced or a disposition is made that removes the wife's name from the mortgage(s). The husband shall make such disposition of the marital home which removes the wife's name from the mortgage within 12 months from the date of this agreement (agreement was signed 9/4/09). However, this period will be extended to 15 months if the husband provides to the wife documentation reflecting his good faith and diligent effort to complete such dispostion. Such documentation shall be provided on September 4, 2010 (which it wasn't). The wife shall cooperate with the execution of any and all documentsto permit the husband to refinance and remove the wife's name from the mortgage. Wife shall not seek to discharge the mortgage debt in bankruptcy during this period so long as the husband is in compliance with this section 12A (which he was not)."
Also, with the IRS stuff, he wa supposed to do that too, which he didn't.
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