The holmdel house ....
As some of you know, I am buying a house in Holmdel & moving out of Middletown. I was supposed to close on the house in Holmdel on Jan 9. But, the lawyer called me the day before & told me that there were problems with the survey.
It turns out that part of the swimming pool (and a couple of other minor structures) encroaches into the so called 'easement area' designated by the township. I believe, a 10 foot section of the concrete pool in the backyard, is the main problem.
The sellers claim that they have a proper permit for when they constructed the pool 23 years ago. They claim that the town inspectors had inspected & passed the construction. They also claim that their survey does not show the 'easement area' !! So, overall, they think that we are stalling & inventing 'non-existent issues' to back out of the deal.
Holmdel does not have CO. So, technically, we can go through the transaction, but, when I want to sell the property (may be, 5-7 years from now), I will probably have to resolve this issue.
Our lawyer has approached the township and asked them to rule on this matter. We were initially told that the town will let us know within a week or so. Now, it is 2 weeks and we have not heard anything from the town. Our lawyer approached the township attorney last week and asked for his opinion & we were told to wait for another wek. My lawyer tells me that if the town determines that (because of their mistake or whatever reason) the violations can be waived, we can go ahead and close. On the hand, if the town determines that the violations need to be corrected, we can ask the sellers to put some money on escrow & close.
We, ofcourse, want to buy the house. However, we do not want to go through the purchase, unless we can resolve this problem. It seems to me that everybody (the seller, seller's attorney, seller's realtor) seems to think that, there is no problem, whereas, I know that once they are able to sell the house to me, I am only one who will be stuck with the problem.
In the meantime, my rate-lock with the mortgage bank has run out & I will have to go out and get a new mortgage at the prevailing rates. 1 concern is the rising interest rates..although the rates somewhat dipped last couple of weeks, they are probably going upwards before too long. So, unless I can resolve this matter within the next couple of weeks, I may not be able to afford the house.
For now, we are waiting until end of this week to see if there is any feedback from the township & then decide on what to do ... your comments, feedback are appreciated.
It turns out that part of the swimming pool (and a couple of other minor structures) encroaches into the so called 'easement area' designated by the township. I believe, a 10 foot section of the concrete pool in the backyard, is the main problem.
The sellers claim that they have a proper permit for when they constructed the pool 23 years ago. They claim that the town inspectors had inspected & passed the construction. They also claim that their survey does not show the 'easement area' !! So, overall, they think that we are stalling & inventing 'non-existent issues' to back out of the deal.
Holmdel does not have CO. So, technically, we can go through the transaction, but, when I want to sell the property (may be, 5-7 years from now), I will probably have to resolve this issue.
Our lawyer has approached the township and asked them to rule on this matter. We were initially told that the town will let us know within a week or so. Now, it is 2 weeks and we have not heard anything from the town. Our lawyer approached the township attorney last week and asked for his opinion & we were told to wait for another wek. My lawyer tells me that if the town determines that (because of their mistake or whatever reason) the violations can be waived, we can go ahead and close. On the hand, if the town determines that the violations need to be corrected, we can ask the sellers to put some money on escrow & close.
We, ofcourse, want to buy the house. However, we do not want to go through the purchase, unless we can resolve this problem. It seems to me that everybody (the seller, seller's attorney, seller's realtor) seems to think that, there is no problem, whereas, I know that once they are able to sell the house to me, I am only one who will be stuck with the problem.
In the meantime, my rate-lock with the mortgage bank has run out & I will have to go out and get a new mortgage at the prevailing rates. 1 concern is the rising interest rates..although the rates somewhat dipped last couple of weeks, they are probably going upwards before too long. So, unless I can resolve this matter within the next couple of weeks, I may not be able to afford the house.
For now, we are waiting until end of this week to see if there is any feedback from the township & then decide on what to do ... your comments, feedback are appreciated.
posted by Sanjay at 5:30 AM
2 Comments:
>I also suggest consulting an out of area attorney experienced with easements, conservation, wetlands issues, etx., especially as they relate to a restriction of property rights and saleablilty.
Do you know somebody who you can recommend ?
1. you will need to clear this with your bank's attorney b/c they will want clean title to secure the loan. They may not lend against property w/ cloudy title issues.
2. you and seller can agree to go ahead w/ purchase and put money in escrow to cure title defect if the town does not resolve this in time (in other words, hold back an amount at closing sufficient to cure title or compensate buyer if title can't be cured IF it turns out that the town won't grant waiver). This approach allows you to move forward without having a definite answer on this issue.
3. Ask your lawyer to consult the lawyer at his title company to see if they can help. Title company lawyers deal with these issues all the time and are very sophisticated in this specific realm.
4. How can you afford a house with a swimming pool?
5. As a general rule, I would not go forward on a purchase with property with cloudy title unless the risk of that cloud is factored into the price. So you could also just negotiate a discount and accept the risk.
Post a Comment
<< Home