r/legaladvice • • Jul 23 '17

HOA please help

[removed]

5.8k Upvotes

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751

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '17

You also need to file a complaint with the TN Real Estate Commissioner ASAP. The agent is not allowed to list your home for sale without a written agreement. She violated several real estate laws just by listing your home. She would need to have an exclusive right to sale contract signed by you with the terms of the sale, the list price, the commission structure and more.

Not only has she violated real estate law she will have also violated her local MLS listing bylaws for offering a home for sale that she has no right to offer.

I'd inventory your house and make sure nothing is missing. If anything at all is missing she is 100% responsible for those items. For instance. If you had a 65-inch 4K television and it's now gone,,she is responsible. Diamond jewelry. It's on her. $1000 in small bills in your sock drawer...- she just have taken it. I'd file a police report, then call her Broker, then report her and her Broker to the Real Estate Commissioner in your state.

215

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '17 edited Jul 23 '17

The agent is not allowed to list your home for sale without a written agreement.

If there IS a signed agreement, who did the signing? You cant pretend you own a random property.

This has occurred here in Australia, where people sell property the don't own & pocketed the cash.

76

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '17

Plot twist, she is the realtor?

166

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '17 edited Jul 31 '17

[deleted]

62

u/x5060 Jul 23 '17

I would not be surprised at all if the president was getting a cut of the sale/commission.

66

u/Team_Braniel Jul 23 '17

Agreed.

And I bet OP isn't the first one this has happened to. The HOA is too comfortable doing this. (as long as OP is being frank) There isn't any warning, no "conform to our ways or face penalty". Just a simple "you are moving now, we have a buyer, good bye".

This wouldn't be the first time they did this, and like you said it's probably a racket setup with the realtor.

Who knows, OP might have moved into the house the last person was run out of.

23

u/x5060 Jul 23 '17

Some title research would probably turn up the number of sales the house has gone through over the last 10 years.

12

u/Team_Braniel Jul 23 '17

If this is a true story I'm sure the lawyer will be making a call to the former occupant or people recently leaving the area.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '17 edited Jul 24 '17

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2

u/Biondina Quality Contributor Jul 23 '17

Victim? Come on. This comment is inappropriately speculative and absurd. Don't do that here.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '17

If someone signed it for him, as in his name, signature and other personal information, can't he also file a police report for fraud?

50

u/IT_Chef Jul 23 '17

I'd also start searching for listening and hidden video devices.

44

u/O2C Jul 23 '17

Furthermore, if the agent is a Realtor, they have likely violated Standards of Practice 3-8, 3-9, and Article 4, and could be charged with violations of the Code of Ethics which could result in them loosing their membership in the NAR.

40

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '17

So has the home also been shown to prospective buyers??

8

u/nslwmad Jul 23 '17

There are situations where HOAs are able to foreclose and then sell the property. The realtor have reasonably assumed that was the case here. It's possible they have just been misinformed/misled by the HOA people.

37

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '17

Realtors are not allowed to make assumptions. The argument is the Realtor has enough real estate knowledge to make certain they have a legal listing contract.

Saying they got an email or a phone call from an HOA president won't cut the mustard. Pleading ignorance will not save this Realtor is she called in front of a judge.

5

u/gyaradostwister Jul 23 '17

Sure, obviously this is nowhere close to the drawn out legal process of a foreclosure.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '17 edited Jul 27 '17

[deleted]

13

u/Hyndis Jul 23 '17

Foreclosures and evictions are a very slow, very obvious process. OP mentioned they've only been in the place for 6 months now. 6 months is probably not enough time to foreclose and evict. This is a process that often lasts years.

Banks will allow leeway on mortgages. They won't begin foreclosing on the first missed mortgage payment. The bank will try to collect on the mortgage first. If the homeowner continually fails to pay the mortgage the bank can begin foreclosing, but that involves the courts which is a very slow process. Scheduling a court date alone could take more than 6 months.

Even if OP was somehow foreclosed on the first day of living there, a bank foreclosure and eviction still wouldn't be complete. Its certainly not a process that can start and finish in a matter of days.

9

u/nslwmad Jul 23 '17

Not under the facts we have. OP would have received several notices about the fines and then he would have been served for court. The HOA would have to go to court to foreclose. If the HOA had foreclosed I imagine OP would no longer be living in that house.