Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question about a property lien

I am in the process of doing a no cost refi on my house. I got approved and locked in with a killer interest rate. Everything was moving forward and then I received an email that said that the loan company could not proceed due to a lien on my home. WTF?!?

The neighborhood I live in sends out an irrigation bill once a year for about $200. Its a sweet deal, $200 a year to water the lawn from the surrounding lakes. Anyway, I must have missed it last year because this February I received a nasty letter from them stating that if it wasnt paid they would file a lien on my home. I PROMPTLY went to the office and paid my overdue bill, with late fee's and went ahead and paid this years water bill in advance as well. I was embarrassed but took care of it within an hour of receiving the letter.

I went in to the water office today and was PISSED! I might not get that loan and interest rates have risen a little. I get the guy thats in charge of the water rights and he comes out of his office and says thats he's very sorry that this never should have happened. He has a copy of the check I wrote back in February and says he will "try to get it taken care of" today and admits that there NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN A LIEN PLACED ON MY HOME and that there had been "a lot of turnover at their attorneys office"! It took every bit of restraint I had to not come unglued.

I take full responsibility for missing the water bill last year and I am embarrassed that I had to recieve the nasty letter from them but I also feel like they had better make this thing right and my loan had better go through. This could potentially cost me thousands upon thousands of dollars.

Am I being unreasonable because I'm pissed or do I have a legitimate complaint here?

The loan was supposed to go through today and if it doesnt go through within the next 5 days I have to pay my old mortgage company another $2k payment thats basically nothing but interest. This new loan is a 20 year loan and I will actually pay less than my 30 year loan now.

Attorney time.

you need to contact a Lawyer for real legal advice

Lawyer up RIGHT NOW!

I'm not looking for any "real legal advice" from 24HR, I just dont want the fact that I am sofa king mad right now to cloud my judgement. Just trying to get a grasp of whether or not I am overreacting here

they should remove lein post haste and be required to send a letter explaining that the lein was a mistake,that all bills are paid and paid in advance ,.that letter and a phone call should go out today ,now thats what e mail and fax's are for with a follow upo of hard copy ,also with you threating a law suit [lawer up] if it is not forwarded immeaditly

I emailed the mortgage company the copy of the check I wrote back in February. I gave him the contact info for the man at my neighborhood offices. It looks like the loan still has a chance because the guy at the neighborhood office fully admits that it was their mistake. Problem is, the county has to have the lien removed and that could take a while so I am going to have to pony up a $2k mortgage payment thats all interest instead of skipping this month and starting with the new lower interest payment next month. My plan is to pay the same amount every month and apply the overage to the principal.

This kind of crap just pisses me off!

VERY good advice, that,....get on it, and STAY on it.

Calmly put all of the affected / involved parties on the same page of music, and in agreement that a MISTAKE was made. Once the new re-fi is signed and in place, take em' all out for dinner and drinks.

Done,...and the most "never sweat" way.

GTC

I hate it too when another's ineptness costs me money, but it sounds like you are doing all that you can do short of filing a suit. That will cost you more money, probably. Sounds like a good time to go out and hunt sonora, or something else to help you relax. Bow season opens here in a week, and you are welcome to go with me.

"Just trying to get a grasp of whether or not I am overreacting here"

Yes and no. Big effup on their part but [bleep] happens, focus on solving the problem and ignore the pissed off part. Get thee to an attorney NOW. State law varies, here I'd get you a release of lien ASAP and walk it to the court house for filing with a copy of the recorded document you can hand to the lender.

I had a similar situation where a lein was on my property and I didnt know it until I was refinancing. Same story about the county having to remove the lein. I got it removed in one day, Amite County, Miss., by having the bank (they are the ones that screwed up) fax a letter to the courthouse and I went there to make sure it was recorded.

Hope you get it fixed and soon

Get an attorney. Slander of title potential suit.

Force them to make it right or cover additional costs, if any, due to delay.

We can all learn a lesson from this. An early step in refinancing is to check to see if there's a lien on your property.

Pay your bills on time! You screwed up and didn't pay on time, they screwed up and didn't remove the lien in time, Stuff happens, they weren't mad at you for six months, don't be mad at them.

Wouldn't mean anything if you hadn't tried to refi. Once in a lifetime offer only applies to those with out liens, you had a lien.

They'll take the lien off and you will be whole.

They aren't completely responsible for a chain of mistakes that you intiated.

Sycamore

After more phone calls today I found out that the lien was not placed on my property until AFTER I paid the dues for last year and this year back in February! The one letter I received on this matter showed up on my doorstep and all was paid within in hour of receiving it. In the letter it gave me 10 days to pay my past dues before they took further action. They took action even though I had paid it. The lien was placed on my property in early June, this is the reason the lender didnt notice it until the very end of the refi process. The people down at the HOA didnt want to tell me this but they have called me 4 times today to make sure I knew they were working on it

The HOA had their attorney draw up paperwork today and the attorney and the HOA have contacted the mortgage company and have taken full responsibility for what has happened. We'll see, I hope the loan goes through, it will save me a pile of money.

So Sycamore, your right, regardless of whether I received a bill last year I should have paid the irrigation bill. Had it been paid none of this would have happened. That being said, its really a bunch of bullchit that they placed a lien on my property three and a half months after the bill and late fee had been paid

I can honestly say I have never been so pissed as when I have had to deal with an HOA. So I can relate to what you are saying. (well, maybe the IRS once, but same deal)

I hope you can push this through the bank and get your loan, my guess is the money ( and time) you would spend on a lawyer would never let you come out ahead.

Best of luck,

Sycamore

Thanks and I agree about HOA's and the IRS!

I settled down today and I know that they are working hard to get this issue resolved. I am just going to have a "wait and see" attitude before I make any rash decisions. I cannot imagine a scenario where the mortgage company wouldnt take a look at the paperwork thats being provided and know it was an honest mistake by all parties involved. Its a pretty low risk loan really, I am borrowing about 45% of the value of the property. I will remain optimistic until I hear bad news. I am still PISSED but optimistic

Thanks for letting me vent fellas!

In all honesty your lender is stupid. A small lien like that should have been handled as a closing/escrow requirement and not delayed the loan for even an hour.

Calm down, it may not be as bad as you think.

Mortgage payments are not like rent that is payed in advance. Interest is payed in arrears so the payment you make just means it will be applied to the previous month like it should have. Your mortgage payment is paid after the fact. Any more interest due because of a delay will be accounted for like it would have on a day to day basis on the closing sheet at settlement.

IE: If you rented a home on Oct. 1, your rent would be due Oct. 1 because it pays for the month of October in advance.
On the other hand, when you buy a home and/or refi a mortgage, the closing agent will collect interest due from you by calculating day to day interest due. The interest is charged on your closing statement as a closing cost and goes to the previous lender. If your closing date, for example, is September 15, you will be charged prorated daily interest from September 1st to the 15th and September 15th through September 30th on your closing statement. Your old lender gets what is owed them for the arrearage and new lender gets prepaid for rest of September but your first mortgage payment will not be until November 1 because that payment will pay the interest due for October.

Just remember that a mortgage payment consists of two parts: mortgage interest and mortgage principal. Interest is always paid 30 days in arrears.

Now if the delay causes you to lose a preferential rate, that is another kettle of fish.

It sounds like the parties involved are doing the right things to resolve this issue. One thing though. I wouldn't wait and see. Keep hounding them. The squeaky wheel gets greased. I've taken the wait and see approach before and have been burned by my own inactions, being polite, benefit of the doubt, relying on others - etc.