We will soon, finally, be owning our home!
By katsmeow1213
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
United States
November 22, 2008 12:38pm CST
About 2 and a half years ago my in laws bought this house for us to live in. We moved in knowing full well that it was a rent to own situation, and that the house would soon be put in our names. But shortly there after my father in law changed his mind and decided it was HIS house and would never be ours. So we've been struggling back and forth over this decision ever since.
Well yesterday my mother in law told my husband that they were finally ready to put the house in our name. We will finally own it, and most likely will be able to get some grants in order to fix it up the way we want it.
We will not have a mortgage on it, but we will have to continue to pay his parents for it, for how long, we haven't really decided. His parents seem to think we will give them every dime they paid for the house. Unfortunatly the house was never worth what they paid for it, and I have no intentions of giving them that much. So we will have to negotiate this before they give us the house. But right now due to some struggles they're having, it's more important to them to give us the house than it is to us, so that is working in my favor.
Our other problem is the taxes. Unfortunatly his father has not been paying the taxes on the house. We're not sure what will happen when the house switches names, but I'm guessing we'll have to cover those back taxes, as well as paying our current taxes. This is the only thing I'm unsure of how we're going to cope with it. Of course if we have to pay the back taxes, we sure as heck aren't going to pay his parents, and they already know that.
But everything has a way of working itself out, so I guess in the end we'll be okay.
Sadly I'm just not as excited about this as I should be. I'm just worried that it won't work out, and that we won't be able to fix the place up, and then we'll be stuck owning this house that is not even worth what we're paying on the taxes.
2 people like this
5 responses
@cher913 (25781)
• Canada
22 Nov 08
that happened to us. we were supposed to be in a rent to own situation from this very nice man and his wife. then the man passed away and the wife got a lawyer to send us a letter to get us out of the house. so much for a good christian woman eh? (oh, i was pregnant at the time...)
1 person likes this
@chertsy (3797)
• United States
24 Nov 08
How many years has your inlaws failed to pay property taxes? If it's been a long time, you need to find out if the city or county is about to take the house. There is a house in our neighborhood that went on the auction block this weekend because the owners left and didn't pay their taxes. Since the house is in their name, they are responsible for those back taxes, not you and your husband. I learned that when we bought our home in 05. You become responsible the day the paperwork goes from their name to yours. Let's say, you get the house in December, you have to pay taxes on the property for that month, while your inlaws have to pay for Jan-Nov. You also need to make sure what your taxes are going to be and when they are due, we have city and county taxes. I found out that we had city taxes the hard way, when I got the bill for 06, and the back taxes for 05. They explained to me that we owed from the moment we signed our name on the paperwork, stating the house was ours.
I would let them know that your not responsible for the back taxes. If it does come down to you having to pay them, you can call the city and talk to them. They are actually decent people, and knowing your situation should work with you. So you don't go under paying for their mess up. I agree, if you, if you have to pay these back taxes, you shouldn't have to pay them anything until the tax debt is cleared. I would make my fil, get in there and fix anything that needs to be fixed, or at least help do most of the work.
Good Luck with this situation.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
24 Nov 08
We moved in here in May 06, so a couple years of not paying taxes, but our county isn't really big on taking houses back. There's a building a few blocks down where taxes haven't been paid in like 10 years. The owner is waiting for the town to take the building an knock it down but the town wants the owner to knock it down, so until one of them decides to budge, nobody is doing anything.
My FIL not only can't afford to fix this place up... he got himself in some real financial trouble afer he bought this house, now they're pretty bad off. He also doesn't have the health to help us. He's diabetic and doesn't take good care of himself, and he's had so many toes removed. I believe he's had 5 toes removed total, 2 since we've moved in here. The last was recently too.
1 person likes this
@chertsy (3797)
• United States
24 Nov 08
Wow, here I think it's after a couple of years and the county will come and collect. We got lucky because we explained our situation, the contractor never sent us the paperwork stating we had to pay city taxes. Being a renter, only thing I knew about was county taxes thanks to my parents having to pay every year. The interest on the two years of not paying, hopefully won't be to much. We pay around 400 and something for city, and thanks to the increase 800 and something for county. Luckily the year we didn't know about the city taxes we only owed for 5 months instead of the full year.
I'm sorry to hear of your fil's health, but since he doesn't try to help himself, he only has himself to blame. It stinks that he can't help your family fix any problems that pop up with the house. It really stinks that they won't be able to pay the back taxes. Hopefully, it's not as much as mine, that way you will be able to pay it off, or be able to set up a payment plan. Our city and county lets you pay a little at a time.
I still agree that until the back taxes are paid for, you shouldn't have to pay them anything. Again, good luck with this situation.
@gemini_rose (16264)
•
23 Nov 08
It would be great for you to own your own home, but like you say it is going to be bad if you end up paying out more than it is worth. Especially if it need some work doing to it as well. I hope that it does work out for you though.
@rocketj1 (6955)
• United States
22 Nov 08
Wow! This situation is rather messy, isn't it?! If you had it to do all over again, would you have done it? If your name is not on anything yet, are you legally obligated to stay? It seems that they have a hold over you on this. Are they generally control freaks with their son? Sounds very sticky!
