Most people know that I brought a new condo. I actually bought it in August but had no plans to move in until the end of September. I changed my mind and decided to move in earlier (at the beginning of the month). I was out of town when the closing took place, so I had to give power of attorney to my business partner. So I went over to the closing attorney's office to pick up the keys to the condo but he told me that he gave them to the loan officer because she told him that I was too busy to pick them up. Well I tried over and over to contact her but no answer. So I went to the condo and asked the concierge desk for the spare keys to my unit and they informed me that I was supposedly already living there. Come to find out the loan officer stole the keys and moved in. I went up with the police to have her removed but felt a little bad about throwing her out on the streets with 2 kids. I gave her 5 days to vacate. She did but not before she vandalized the place. She took gallons of paint and splased it all over the walls, down the drains and all over the carpet. The police claim that there is nothing I can do because no one actually saw her do it. So my move in has been delayed until the end of the week to allow for clean up.
Might want to try small claims court (magistrate court) where you don't need a lawyer and the burden of proof is much lower then in criminal court. There is a limit on how much you can collect in magistrate court. Secondly contact the loan company she is an officer with seeking compensation from them for she was acting at closing as thier representative.
Hope you didn't give a General Power of Attorney and the GPA specifies what actions the person can take and has a time limit. If not, first thing you should do is revoke it ASAP.
With General Power of Attorney, essentially you are legally authorizing the persons signature's to have the same validity your signatures has. They can drain your Bank Account, make property transfers, etc.
I am not laywer, have friend who is. One time when I had to do the same, he explained to me the nuances.
Good Luck
I gave power of attorney to my business partner. This had nothing to do with her. This condo cost me $389,000. I found out that she had been pocketing my appraisal money among other things. So believe me, I am glad that she left voluntarily because otherwise she would have been physically removed by the hands of the law or by my hands. I am not a violent person, so I am glad that it didn't have to go to that level. The damage that she did was upsetting but it can be fixed.
The closing attorney's office already called the mortgage company about her because they said she acted so ugly at the closing. The mortgage company informed us that she was fired a year and a 1/2 ago. I also found out that her name is on the Department of Banking and Finanacing for practicing without a license but the company name that they have her under on there is a totally different company. I spoke with the gentleman who owns the mortgage company myself and he was so upset because he also tried to press charges against her but was told that there is nothing that he can do because she can practice under whatever company she wants and even though she was cashing his companies checks, they were not actually his, so there is nothing he can do about that either. You tell people to use the law and never take matters into their own hands, but what do you tell them when every avenue they try to take using the system fails them? In this case the law is protecting the guilty.
Still would try magistrate court. If she does not show up a couple of times, you can win by default and get a lien against her bank accounts. Done it myself several times before I used written contracts so it was my word against their's. Both times won settlements because my story made sense. It would also seem that she is guilty of fraud by practicing without a license and misrepresenting who she works with. Recently I closed on a Mtn cabin and used e-loan. Got the best rates and no loan orgination charges.
Sounds like you have a good civil case against this person as well. I'd sue.
She represented someone providing the funds for the loan, therefore whichever companies were represented by her at the closing are most likely responsible due to her acting as their agent. You probably need legal representation to track all this down and cut through the BS you are getting. I think the primary responsibility is with the mortgage company since they still provided funds through your broker/agent and are now trying to cover their behind.
You need to report her to her mortgage company and get her fired. This is a breach of her fiduciary duty to you as your lending officer. You may also try to claim for repairs from the mortgage company as she is their responsibility.
She was fired a year and a half ago, come to find out.
Chanel,
If she was fired a year ago, how did she process your loan. The loan has to be processed thru a broker who is licenced thru the dept. of B&F. There has to be a broker. B/C me and I will tell you how to fine out who the broker she used actually is. There is a way.... All of the mortgage banks transfer money a certian way and there is a trail. B/C me .....
Mj
That is all to correct. I would talk to the Mortgage Broker and tell then that you would like for them to cover all damages and any future problems that might come along for the next 12 months (i.e. Plumbing, electrical,carpeting and so on). The reason I say this is that the broker is reasponsible for all of their Loan Officers and The Dept. of B&F does not take kindly to fruad or and other types of misleading of the consumer. If the Mortgage Broker does refuse to take responsiblity then b/c me and I can tell you how to proceed. If you can do not use your insurance company if at all possible as you will be cancelled. (they will not renew your policy and you go on a list for to many claims and or course the premium goes up). Also press charges for fruad and vandalism as well. The insurance company likes that kind of stuff. The reason I say that is she will do it to another person.
Just my .03cents (inflation)
Mj
...Why didn't the business partner take the keys at closing since she was legally taking posession of and responsibility for
the property while acting as General Power of Attorney?
Why would you ever go away and not attend a closing unless you had made SURE that final walk through/details/follow-up/change of posession would be handled competently? Reschedule the closing for when you COULD be there. There can be way too much involved to trust to someone else unless you are sure they know what they are doing, and here, somebody didn't. I know, hindsight is usually at least 90% accurate.
If the Mortgage "Rep" took appraisal money, how was a loan ever funded without an appraisal???
How was the Mortgage "Rep" even a rep if she had been previously fired by the Mortgage Company, so how did she ever get into the position to do the closing? If fired, she didn't really represent the funding, so how did she ever even get to the closing table with the funding in the first place?
Did Mortgage Company ever communicate with Mortgage "Rep"?
Did Mortgage Co ever communicate with Closing attorney?
Did Closing Attorney ever communicate with Mortgage Company?
Did anyone ever ask any questions about anyone else involved?
There are normally a lot close communication involved in most Real Estate transactions, creating checks and balances if people are paying attention/doing their jobs/being careful since so much money is changing hands. Didn't anybody involved smell a rat??? I see "red flags" all over the place.
With a Mortgage/funding on one side, the buyer on the other side, a Closing Attorney, and maybe even a Real Estate Agent
or Broker sitting "in the middle" working for one side or the other, or both, I don't understand how this loan even got funded and closed in the first place. Seems like the Mortgage Company would be a LOT more careful allowing that much money to be distrubuted to anyone at this closing table.
Maybe I am missing something, but I don't even see how this loan ever got closed???
The more I think about it the more I question what happened. The closing should have been cancelled by the Bank or closing attorney.
Mj
It would seem to me that there was never a closing.
Did the person to whom you gave P of A, ever produce the closing papers. Did the bank/mortgage Co. ever get a deed?
As for small claims court, I'm sure the judge would rule in your favor, BUT, the court doesn't collect. YOU have to collect.
If you file a claim in civil court, you may be collecting social security before you'd ever get into court.
Sweetie, this is a learning experience, albeit, a sad one, but get yourself a reputable attorney, preferably one practicing real estate law, and let him handle this mess.
For heaven's sake, find out in advance what he's going to charge you!!
You have lots of friends telling you what to do... but, PLEASE get yourself to an attorney.
Good luck, dear.
Chanel,
Good lord, what a mess! I'm not sure how they closed on this property, either. Please report this person to the board; if she was fired, and did this as well, you can get her investigated, get her license suspended if it isn't already, and the GREC(GA Real Estate Commission) can also press more charges...
I have included a link that shows; by name; current and past suspensions for fraudulent acts and other discrepancies. Get a real estate attorney. You can also call them directly for information; not legal advice mind you; but they can direct you to the proper authority...
Good luck; there are tons of people within this community who deal w/real estate...we'll help out any way we can, I'm sure!
Sofia
Well speaking as an individual who has a real estate license and I practice real estate law among other areas I agree with most of what has been said above. I would like to point out that presenting either legal advice without a license is legally a problem criminally. Also, same goes for all professions that have a state license.
Most importantly is seems that the best avenue is either file suit in magistrate and seek all avenues that have not been covered like licensing, or take it as a bad learning experience.
Good luck and good suggestions Sofia.
Get with your attorneys and work out ever single detail to make
sure what you believe to be true actually is. Like do you
really own the property?
Once you know what the true status of things is, you can go
after the correct people for reimbursement and also to prevent
this from happening to someone else.
fr
Having worked in real estate and sat in on many closings, I don't understand how this could happen. If someone was fired over a year ago, how can they sit at the table representing a mortgage company? If you got a mortgage from a reputable lending company, they would make sure everything was fine. What about the closing attorney? They are there to protect the interests of the bank (not yours, unfortunately)-someone had to okay everything before the condo could close. Who issued the check to the seller? I don't know how big your mortgage is, but it doesn't sound like someone who was fired, etc. could have that much money to cut a check to the seller at closing. Definitely go see an attorney. There seems to be MANY at fault here. Good luck, sweetie.
Oh believe you me, the first thing that I checked into is:
1. Is my condo really mines? (the answer was yes) and
2. Can my condo be taken away from me at anytime due to this? (the answer was no)
Someone had to be licensed and had to sign off within the mortgage company. Seek your attorney and you should have a great chance of recovering.
First of all, I trust my business partner or otherwise he would not be my partner. It was told to me that the seller would bring a certain amount of money to the table for closing costs but at the closing come to find out the seller knew nothing about this. So the closing still took place but there was a balance still left in closing cost. I had just payed for a 10 day family vacation with mom, dad, etc. So I decided to wait until the end of this month to pay it and move in. We were under the impression that the keys would not be handed over until the balance was paid. So I decided to pay it last week and move in but the attorney said that when he gave the stack of papers to the loan officer that he also gave her an envelope which contained the keys to the condo. None of this was found out about until about a week ago about her being fired, etc. As far as the appraisal money she kept telling me that the gentleman that does the appraisals does not except checks or money orders (cash only). I thought this was strange and handed her the money for the appraisal. Well she came up with this long as excuse about the appraisal. What it all boiled down to was she wanted money for another appraisal or my condo would not close. By this time, I refused to give her any more money but my business partner did. At the closing come to find out the money for the appraisal was already on the Hud. I personally talked to the man who owns the mortgage company and he tried several avenues himself only to be told there is nothing he can do. I called Department of Banking and Financing and they asked me had I called last week because someone else called about the same person. She is already on their list. The lady acted like she didn't care and told me to submit a letter of my complaint and tell them what I would like to happen to her. The police told me that her and her husband are only suspects because no one actually saw them do it. Now what do I do.
in a way. here's a solution that has worked very effectively for me in the past. however you have to be very convincing and be willing to be a little in the grey area. I recently used this tactic dealing with an Allstate adjuster who wouldn't approve a couple grand when one of their insureds whacked my Porsche (Allstate are the bigged bunch of crooks out there btw and I recommend everyone to stay away from them).
this solution depends on the person having the power or the cash to pay you back...if they can't don't bother (and don't bother suing either). it works because they are using the law to protect themselves from you....you need to make them believe you are going to step outside the law.
find out where the person works, car they drive, in my case I got the adjusters home address also. all this is easy to find out given a little time. then call them up (if you are comfortable you are not going to be taped). In my case I called the adjuster at home and told him "If the claim is not approved by next friday me and three of my biggest friends are gonna wait at (home address) and when you get home we're gonna drag you out of your (car type) and beat the living *@#$% out of you, and leave you crawling around crying in your own blood and vomit in front of (wifes name)".
you HAVE to be able to make it believable, yelling and screaming doesn't do it....being calm and menacing works, especially if you can make them believe you have "underworld" contacts
[this post is probably going to be deleted isn't it?]
Chanel,
Like in posts before the attorney who was to handle the closing represents the bank and if there was not enough funds for the closing costs then the closing should have be postponed until the funds were available. That is how the Banks make some of thier money as well as the Brokers too. It is now time to seek some good legal advise and let the attorney do their thing. Nothing here seems to make any sense to me. You have alot riding on this condo and I would hate to see you get hurt trying to make your dream come true.
Good luck!!!!
MonsterJazz