Ohio Real Estate Legal Questions

Selling home by owner can be a very risky matter for both parties. Lately I have recieved numerous calls from both seller and buyer with problems surrounding a sale of a house without a realtor and sometimes without a title company. I would strongly suggest you hire some professionals to assist in selling your house, be it, a realtor, title company, or lawyer.    Best,   Nicholas Froning ... Read More

I am assuming a few things to answer your question.  My assumptions are that you are asking about a residential sale, that the buyer has obtained a real estate inspection that has derogatory information that the buyer, either you or the other party, are trying to use the report to either lower the purchase price or cancel the transaction. First, the report belongs to the one who purchased it.  That sounds simple enough, but if the buyer purchased it and wants to use it to exercise a right under the purchase agreement to cancel the contract (it is that threat that gets the seller to negotiate a lower price), the buyer has to share it with the seller.  I suppose that there COULD be a purchase agreement that says that the buyer can get an inspection and based on the inspection cancel the agreement, but what that is saying is that they had the right to cancel on a whim.  Usually, the agreements provide that the buyer has to provide some proof that there is a problem with the property, not just keep it a secret and claim that there is an issue. Whether you are the buyer or the seller, This is a little bit of a tricky area that could result in some real damages if you don't do it right.  As an example, if you are the buyer and cancel the purchase agreement without cause, the seller can sell the house to another party and can possibly charge you with any extra costs that they have in maintaining the property during the time that the house remains unsold and possibly charge you with the difference in the sale price, if they were to sell it at a lower price later.  Many buyers and sellers think that if the buyer breaches the contract that the seller gets to keep the earnest money deposit and that is the limit of liability of the buyer. This is generally not true. Generally, the seller has to prove their damages and can deduct them from the earnest money deposit (that usually takes court action unless there is agreement between the buyer and the seller). If there is money left over after that the deduction, the buyer should get a refund of the amount left. If the damages are more than the deposit, the seller can pursue the buyer for the extra. Real estate transactions are all be governed by the contracts.  You should really consider hiring an attorney to review your contract and properly advise you, far better than anyone could do here with the limited amount of information that we are given.  It shouldn't cost you very much to get a good answer based on more than a guess at the facts and the contract.  ... Read More

The two choices you have are likely controlled by your purchase agreement.  Your choices are complete the transaction or cancel the transaction.  There is likely a provision in your agreement that gives you the right to do either, but the complete the transaction is usually divided into two choices, require repairs be made (or compensate you for doing them yourself), giving the power to the seller to agree to make the repair or pay the compensation or reject the offer, in which event the contract will usually be canceled the same as your second choice, with all parties agreeing to pay their own costs. You could try to make a claim for fraud, but the cost in attorneys' fees and aggravation is likely not worth the effort.  You could also try to make a claim against the real estate company, assuming that they had some knowledge of the defects.  Yes, if a fraud case you could be awarded attorneys' fees, but that would mean that you would likely have to have a trial as most people generally fight that concept and they will likely defend saying that they had no knowledge of the problem, that as far as they knew it was all working properly. Consider whether you would actually want to own the house if everything was properly repaired.  Maybe you can work something out with the seller, after all, they want to sell and now they DO know that there are problems, so they will have to change their disclosure statement for the next potential buyer.  They may be willing to be reasonably generous with an allowance for repairs.  This can be a tricky agreement to put together.  I recommend that you consult with a real estate attorney to help you draft an appropriate addendum to your purchase agreement.... Read More

Are you actually selling it to him like a buyer that you don't know, so that he will pay you money and you will pay off all of the taxes, the mortgage loan and other possible liens?  If the answer is yes, you need a sales agreement of some sort and a deed.    The transfer of title isn't necessarily difficult or complex, but it is technical and needs to be completed in an orderly fashion.  I suggest that you hire a real estate attorney to help you.  Additionally, transactions usually will require title insurance, so the title insurer will likely act as your escrow agent to "close" the transaction, to make sure that all of the documents are properly filed, your mortgage loan and taxes are properly paid off and you get any money that may be due to you after everything else.  If he isn't paying you enough money, at lease up front, you probably are going to sell it by land contract, but that is a more extended process.  You really should talk to an attorney about that.... Read More

It is doubtful that you can break your lease merely because you are moving out of town.  You can possibly work with your landlord to try to negotiate an early termination.  As an example, you want to leave 3 months early.  If you agree to leave 3 months early, agree to pay the landlord a portion of the rent, say one month or two, or pay one month, move out without damage and let them keep the security deposit, then let the landlord re-let the property, he or she might be willing to allow you to go without having to pay the entire balance.  Even if you had to give up 1 1/2 months (or whatever you can negotiate more or less than that, it is better than giving up all 3 months. Another practical solution is to find a new tenant for your landlord.  You are graduating from college.  Do you know any juniors who might be interested?  If you hand him a new tenant on a silver platter, he might let you out or them might agree to move in and pay rent early.... Read More

The property is his mother's.  Why are the house and garage his?  Did he build them with some agreement that they would be his?  Something else?  Perhaps there is a solution there, but to answer this properly, any attorney would need more information. If he built them with some promises of ownership or payment or something, then there might be something that you can do, although you don't say exactly what you want.  Unless his mother and sister might agree to some negotiated resolution, the likely solution involves a law suit against his mother, perhaps against his sister, too, although it isn't clear how she is involved other than to persuade the mother.... Read More

From the limited amount of information you provided, it sounds like you have gotten yourself into a very difficult situation.  Those who have told you that you cannot "revoke" the deed are correct because you have given a present interest to your "friend."  It is not very different from buying a house with your spouse.  They are on the deed, you don't just change that without his or her written approval (signing a new deed conveying his or her interest to you). Depending on the rest of the facts about this property, you may be able to get a court to undo what you have done or you, with the help of an attorney, be able to negotiate your way out of this problem. While there may be a good solution for you, but with the limited facts you have provided, there is not enough to give you a definitive answer as to whether a "simple" solution is available to you.... Read More

To give a proper answer, an attorney really needs to see the deed and the will to determine who owns what.  Your question title says deed to a brother and sister, and one sibling dies.  I am assuming when I read that together with the question that the two parties are you father and aunt and that your aunt is still alive. It doesn't have to say "life estate" to act like it.  Without more, this could either be a life estate created by this deed or a transfer on death deed. Transfer on Death Statute http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/5302.23  OSBA Transfer on Death Article https://www.ohiobar.org/ForPublic/Resources/LawYouCanUse/Pages/LawYouCanUse-195.aspx OSBA Life Estate Article  http://www.ohiolegalservices.org/public/legal_terms_dictionary/life-estate  The question is, if the remainderman, your father, dies before his sister, do you become the beneficiary as a result of his will?  You will need have the deed read to determine whether there is contingent beneficiary in the will  ... Read More

You say "ex," so I assume that the divorce is final.  You may want to ask your divorce attorney as there may be some provision in your divorce/dissolution that requires you to sell the house.  Your divorce/dissolution may have also kept you both in title for some period of time, frequently the custodial parent gets the house until the children are gone, then is required to sell and split the proceeds in some fashion. You said that your ex-husband signed a quitclaim deed, but then you said that he want you to put it up for sale, rather than sell it to the person that he gave the deed.  I assume that you mean that he wants you to sell it to the person he gave his interest. This sounds like you need  to talk to your divorce lawyer now.... Read More

Part of the answer depends on what your plans are for any profits.  If it is merely to dispose of the property and perhaps raise enough money to pay off any liens, including mortgages against the property, it could be done by a charity with any proceeds over the cost of the mortgage, etc., being kept by the charity.  I am not saying that you could do this and promise to give the proceeds to the charity, but have the charity hold the raffle. Gambling in Ohio is governed by ORC Chapter 2915, more particularly 2915.01 and 2915.02. http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2915 ... Read More

Ingress and Egress literally means coming and going.  A utility easement generally permits the utility to use the property to run their lines, underground or overhead.  If your easement is literally an ingress/egress easement in favor of the utility, it is possibly limited only to permitting the utility to cross your land to reach their property or actual easement.  An easement like this most frequently grants the "dominant tenement" the right to cross the land of the "servient tenement" unimpeded.  You would have to read the terms of the easement to know exactly what that means.  Perhaps you are allowed to have a gate across the passage, perhaps not.  If you planted something in the way, that by itself would likely be a violation of the easement and if they damaged whatever that was, they would not be required to repair or replace it.  In fact, often times utilities will keep such areas clear cut so they can have easy, unimpeded access. Titles on documents are sometimes not completely descriptive of the rights and powers actually granted by the document, so to properly answer this question I or any other attorney would have to read the document to be sure and be able to advise you properly.  For a complete answer, please contact an Ohio real estate attorney.... Read More

You may have little opportunity to make this work out well.  Remember the old adage, "neither a borrower nor a lender be."  The point of that is to avoid just this problem.  If you forgive me for adding, "no good deed goes unpunished."  Now you are a part owner of the house and stuck.  I assume that the original owner was/is a friend and that by itself has some value to you.  I also assume that the original owner does not have enough money available to pay off the money you  "invested." Your choices:  1) talk to your "friend" about him or her getting a loan from a bank to pay you back/buy your interest out.  If they can't do that consider 2) talking to them about selling the house, either to you or to some third party.  If it is sold to a third party, perhaps all the debts are paid and you can each get back to relative normal.  If it is sole to you, they will have some money to move elsewhere or you could rent it to them.  If they won't go along with either of those, you could 3) file a partition action in court, essentially getting the court to sell the house and divide the proceeds.  This could be pricey and you will end up losing the friend.  The court may also find that you aren't entitled to 50% because the judge may thing that you took advantage of the dire straights of your friend.  Even before you consider the legal fees that you will both have to pay (which may eat up all of the proceeds from the sale and more), you are not likely to get your entire investment back, unless this is a really desirable property, in a good market and there is a small or no mortgage on the property.  Your last choice is 4) count it as a lesson learned and don't do it again.  Of course, that depends on how much you invested and how much you are likely to get back on any of the other solutions.... Read More

Unless you can show that the seller defrauded you in some way, such at their seller's disclosure contained fraudulent statements, it appears that you own the property.  My advice, assuming no fraud, sell it as soon as possible.  Hopefully, you will not lose too much money.  If you don't live in it, you are not required to fill out the seller disclosure.  Just be cautious about making any representations about the quality of the property.... Read More

If you file a partition action, she will be a party to the lawsuit.  Assuming you win, the Court will order the partition, she will not have a choice of whether she can hold the process up by refusing to sign away her dower rights. Do you have an interested buyer for YOUR share?  The only time that she would have to sign off is to sell HIS share.  She has no dower rights in YOUR share.... Read More

When an owner defaults under a mortgage, the lender has to file a lawsuit, a foreclosure action to get them out.  In Ohio, the homeowner has 28 days to answer the foreclosure complaint.  If no answer is filed, the lender can move for default judgment after that 28-day period.  If an answer is filed, then the court can't award a default judgment, but the lender is likely to file a Motion for a Summary Judgment, because there is no dispute that the loan is in default.  The borrower can either file a brief in opposition to the Motion or do nothing.  If nothing is done, the court can then grant judgment in favor of the lender, then order the property sold at Sheriff's Sale. All of this takes time.  The amount of time that it takes will vary depending on the county where the property is located, how soon the lender files the foreclosure action, how vigorously they pursue the case and what action, if any, is taken to defend the lawsuit.  The foreclosure docket in some counties is very busy and backed up and so take a long time.  Other courts are not as congested and the case will move more quickly.  I saw a case where the owner lived in the property throughout the entire lawsuit, through the foreclosure sale, then continued to live there after the bank bought it at the sale.  The bank just let him live there for another year until they found a buyer.  THAT buyer finally made him move out.  The bank was happy to have him there because someone was living in the house, paying to heat it, etc., keeping pipes from freezing and reducing the likelihood that someone would break in and vandalize the property or steal the fixtures, pipes, wiring, siding or anything else that was able to be stolen and sold. It is unlikely that the bank could get the property sold at foreclosure by December 24.  What you might consider is asking the bank if they will rent to you, assuming that they buy it at foreclosure, even on a month to month basis until they sell it (banks frequently buy their own properties at the foreclosure sales). Other alternatives:  You might also find out if the bank is willing to let you cure the default (it isn't just as easy as that because you would have to involve the owner in that deal, too.  Maybe the owner (widow) would be happy to give you the house, or sell it to you on a short sale, if you had the means to pay for the new mortgage.  Often lenders don't want to take properties into their portfolio, so are willing to compromise some of the debt.  They know that if they go to foreclosure, often the sale price if 2/3 or the appraised value, which may even be less than the mortgage, so you might have some negotiating power.  If you want to try to buy the house in this way, you should hire an attorney who is versed in this kind of law.  They are likely to be able to negotiate a deal better than you could have on your own.... Read More

This should be controlled by your contract.  Read the part about Buyer's Breach (is should be titled something like that if you used a contract form supplied by a realtor or attorney).  Sometimes the agreement will provide that the Buyer's liability is limited to the amount of their earnest money deposit, other times it does not.  Sometimes it is more expansive than that and provides specifically that your liability for your failure to close is not limited to your deposit.  The real question is "why don't you want to buy it now?"  Is it because you simply changed your mind?  Is there something that came out in an inspection report that under your contract the seller needs to fix and hasn't?  Did you have any contingencies, like a financing contingency or a contingency on the sale of your house that hasn't been fulfilled?  All of these may have different answers regarding your responsibility to close. Having said all of that, assuming that you just changed your minds, the question becomes, "What does the seller want to do?"  If the property is desirable and might sell fast, they might be willing to let you out (although you/they might still have liability to the real estate broker as they likely have earned the right to their commission and your breach doesn't absolve the seller of liability if the seller lets you out--that could be part of their damages.  You have to read the listing agreement).  If they just want to get it back on the market ASAP they may be willing to make a negotiated settlement (include the broker in this to avoid liability for the full amount to them) which may be any number, any or all of your deposit, possibly more.  If the parties agree, they can do just about anything.  If they don't you may all be going to court.  My suggestion is that you get a real estate attorney involved right away.  The money that you spend on good counsel now could save you thousands in the long run.... Read More

There are two issues primary which are important when fences are installed: First does the local zoning permit the installation of a fence where it is being installed? and Second, is it on his property? You didn't mention where you live.  Many cities have zoning ordinances that prohibit fences in certain areas of your property.  I am in the Cleveland area.  I know of at least one local municipality that prohibits fences forward of the back line of the the home.  Too close to a drive might be another issue or too close to a road.  Check with your city to determine if there are any such restrictions.  Don't take it for granted that there aren't restrictions just because you see fences in the city.  It may be in a differently zoned area or the fences may be in violation of the zoning code.  If it is a violation, the city should enforce the code and force the fence to be moved. You shouldn't assume that the fence is actually on your neighbors property or where the property line actually is for that matter.  Unless you can find a surveyor's monument, a monument that you can be confident of, and can use it to determine your property line with some accuracy, you will likely need to hire a surveyor to locate the property line.  Surveying is a real skill that required calibrated instruments to be correct, so although they might seem a little pricey, unless you are POSITIVE about the property line (not just what you were told when you bought it) it may be worth paying a few hundred dollars to satisfy yourself. These kinds of disputes are actually pretty common.  I teach a class in Mediation at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.  The first mediation that we do is a property line dispute. You say that your home is listed for $85,000 and tax appraised for $91,400.  Tax appraisals, particularly in this volatile real estate market are notoriously bad, perhaps reflecting your original purchase price.  Real estate agents often tell owners what they want to hear about a listing price to get the listing.  It's likely that you didn't expect to sell the home for $85,000, but had that as your starting price.  Consider the $60,000 as an offer.  Don't be insulted, but do what you would do with any other offer, counter-offer.  Who knows, you might be able to come to a price that you are both happy with, remember, though, it is still listed and you will likely have to pay a realtor commission, even though the realtor didn't bring the neighbor to you as a buyer.... Read More

The important question is what portion of your home (i.e., your property) did you rent out?  Your lease should spell out precisely what portion of your property you intended for your tenant to occupy.  Quite obviously you excluded the upstairs portion of your property.  It is likely that you did not specify very clearly.  If that is the case, I would suggest that you avoid costly litigation the outcome of which is uncertain but which will absolutely poison the already strained relationship with your tenant.  It is my opinion that it would be better to wait until the lease expires and then refuse to renew it.  Another possible option, if your lease addresses such things as maintenance of the leased premises, is to terminate the lease based on a failure to maintain the property in a clean and sanitary way.  Does your lease require such things as this of the tenant? For the next tenant, see a good real estate attorney and ask him/her to draft a better lease that will contain protective language.     ... Read More

That will depend upon who is paying for them.  Real estate agents (and sometimes even lenders) insist on selecting the closing attorney.  An informed seller or buyer who is paying the costs for these services should insist on selecting the attorney.  (If you use the other guy's attorney, you are certain to pay a high price for the services.  If you use your own attorney, you are certain to pay a reasonable fee for those services.) Aside from the principle set out above, you  should also keep in mind that a seller has no special interest in your protection as a buyer.  A title examination - and the issuance of title insurance -- is for the buyer's and lender's protection.  If I am a purchaser, I would much prefer that my own attorney be the one to search the title and protect my interests. Keep in mind, however, that not every attorney is competent to handle real estate transactions.  Many good  lawyers practice law in other areas of the law and may not feel comfortable handling a transaction.  My comments above, assume that your attorney is a competent closing attorney.  If he is not, he can refer you to a good closing attorney whom you can trust to do a good job.  ... Read More

That will depend upon who is paying for them.  Real estate agents (and sometimes even lenders) insist on selecting the closing attorney.  An informed seller or buyer who is paying the costs for these services should insist on selecting the attorney.  (If you use the other guy's attorney, you are certain to pay a high price for the services.  If you use your own attorney, you are certain to pay a reasonable fee for those services.) Aside from the principle set out above, you  should also keep in mind that a seller has no special interest in your protection as a buyer.  A title examination - and the issuance of title insurance -- is for the buyer's and lender's protection.  If I am a purchaser, I would much prefer that my own attorney be the one to search the title and protect my interests. Keep in mind, however, that not every attorney is competent to handle real estate transactions.  Many good  lawyers practice law in other areas of the law and may not feel comfortable handling a transaction.  My comments above, assume that your attorney is a competent closing attorney.  If he is not, he can refer you to a good closing attorney whom you can trust to do a good job.  ... Read More