Idaho Real Estate Legal Questions

Idaho rules for small claims allow the Plaintiff to file in the county in which the matter arose (in this case, apparently that would be where the property is located) when the Defendant (you) lives out of state.  If the buyer really files an action, versus simply threatening one, then yes, the Plaintiff will get a default judgment against you if you do nothing,  However, most courts will allow you to defend yourself over the telephone if you request it.  You haven't indicated the location of this matter, so I cannot swear that the court you would be in would allow you to defend yourself by phone, but I suspect they would under the circumstances.  You'd mail them any paperwork you wanted to use in your defense ahead of the hearing.   ... Read More

You have not provided enough information for a definite answer.  You say you held title and that the property "closed" on 5/20.  These two statements imply that when you purchased the property you gave a note and deed of trust, you defaulted on the note and there was a trustee's sale on 5/20.  If that was the scenario and you did not receive notice of the default and upcoming sale, then the trustee sale should be invalid.  However, it would be extremely rare for a trustee to make that mistake.  Therefore, I suspect you had an installment contract because you say you were making payments through escrow.  On an installment contract, title is not transferred to you until you finish paying all the installments.  Unless a "memorandum" of the installment agreement was recorded, no one (i.e., the public) is aware that you have an ownership interest in the property.  To "foreclose" on an installment contract requires a lawsuit/judgment, rather than a trustee sale (i.e., closing).  Since it would be impossible for you not to be aware of a lawsuit against you, it does not sound like the installment contract was foreclosed.  Instead, it sounds like you purchased the property "subject to" a mortgage/deed of trust the seller was supposed to keep current (using your installment payments) and the seller failed to do that, so his mortgage/deed of trust was foreclosed and resulted in a trustee sale.  That could happen without you getting notice, in which case you'd have a right to sue your seller for breach of contract but would not have a right to get the property back from whoever purchased it at the "closing."  You need an attorney to review your paperwork and more facts about your case.   ... Read More

Your decree binds only the two of you and has no effect on third parties.  It does not hold weight against the lien(s) on the house.  The decree is like a contract between the two of you and she's breached it, so you have a claim against her for the $10,000 but you'll have to seek it from some source of income/assets she has other than the house.  ... Read More

Death of the party owed the money does not change the terms of the contract, it simply means that the payments will go to the estate instead of to your mother.  So I agree with you that if there is no provision in the contract for a balloon payment upon death, I don't believe there is one.  There may be more facts or details to this that you have not included in your question that could change this conclusion, perhaps an understanding by all parties that you were to pay it off in full if your mother died?  Otherwise, it appears that you understanding of the situation is correct.... Read More

The "Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act" (there is also a federal law that says the same thing) says that the new property owner cannot evict a month-to-month tenant for 90 days, or, when a lease is in effect, until the tenant's lease ends except when the new property owner is going to use the rental property as his or her primary residence, in which case the new owner only has to give the tenant 90 days notice.  For more details, go to the Idaho Attorney General's website at http://www.ag.idaho.gov/consumerprotection/foreclosure/tenantsForeclosureAct.html  Of course, the foregoing assumes you continue to pay rent.  If you don't pay rent, the new owner can evict you, which obviously involves penalties.  Although the law does not say so, I believe this law means that the foreclosure has not broken the lease, so if you elect to leave early you could suffer penalties.  However, many new owners are willing to give "cash for keys" and will pay you to vacate early, although this would be purely a matter of voluntary negotiation between the parties.... Read More

Typically the purpose of the county inspecting the drainfield is to determine that it meets health and safety standards, rather than to verify that it does not encroach on a neighbor's property.  You may have had to show proof of ownership of the property in your application for the construction permit, and the county may have verified your ownership, but that does not mean the county could determine that the drainfield would encroach on a neighbor's property.  Proof of encroachment would require a survey of the land with surveyor's stakes on the land showing the actual boundary line.  Unless the survey stakes were on the land, the county would have no real way of knowing that the drainfield was encroaching when they inspected the property, and even if they were there, the inspector would not have reason to pay much attention to them.  Finally, the government typically considers boundary disputes to be private matters between owners that have nothing to do with the government.  You have not indicated whether you are the one encroaching or whether you are being encroached on.  When you ask "what is the statute of limitations on encroachments," I think you are asking how long it takes for someone to establish a right to encroach either by adverse possession or prescriptive easement.  The time period on either of those used to be 5 years of open, notorious use (i.e., the other party was aware of the use but never gave its permission) but in 2006 the law on adverse possession was modified to make the period be 20 years and the new law created uncertainty as to whether it applied to both adverse possession and prescriptive easements.  So the period is either 5 or 20 years but it is necessary that the other party was aware of it without attempting to put a halt to it for that full period of time.  ... Read More

A divorce decree is simply an agreement between you and your ex-spouse and has absolutely no effect on third parties, like lenders, and does not modify any third party agreements, like promissory notes and mortgages.  As you apparently already know, the only way to get off liability on the notes/mortgages is to get them refinanced solely in your ex-spouses name.  You do not say whether the decree required him to refinance.  If it did not, then he is not in breach of any obligation and I also doubt that this was an oversight in the original decree.  It is probably impossible in today's market for him to refinance so I doubt that a judge would modify the decree to require it.  He probably has an obligation to you in the decree to take responsibility for the LLC's debts and until he lets one of them default, he's fulfilled his obligations to you.  Unfortunately, as you already know, your credit report will continue to show you as a debtor and if he defaults on the loans, your credit will take a hit.  You'll have a legal action against him at that point, but it won't cure the credit report problem.  Finally, no, you don't have a right to 1/2 the rents the LLC has collected because you gave him your interest in the LLC and apparently that was not coupled with an obligation for him to refinance the debts.  After all, you have not been making 1/2 the mortgage payments since the divorce either, right?  There may be more specifics in your decree that you have not related to us in you question that may lead to a different conclusion.  Best of luck.... Read More