Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[Latestarter]

Much stranger things have happened, and they are still the owners so have the "right" to charge whatever they want and you have the "right" to refuse and move. justsayin

 

[farmerjan]

I hope that you have a lawyer that is on your list of knowledgeable people. I have no idea of what the laws are there....we had been dealing with some stuff in the past here and it took several months with legal help to get it all straightened out and the title to a property legally filed. Once it was done, it wasn't long before we sold it as it was a spec buy and we basically made next to nothing on it after the legal stuff. We had had enough and said it was better to be out of it totally since it wasn't a place we wanted to live anyway. BUT, that has made us VERY careful of any/all future deals...All I can say is I hope that you can get the financing done and then legally give them X amount of days to get their stuff out/cleaned up and gone and then that is it. Then they don't have any legal recourse to come back and make sure that is SPECIFICALLY stated in any deal / closing /etc.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Much stranger things have happened, and they are still the owners so have the "right" to charge whatever they want and you have the "right" to refuse and move. justsayin

I would agree except that they waited until 3 days after we paid the property taxes for them...the original agreement was we pay property taxes for rent and fix the place up some/clean the place up...except their stuff in buildings. We have some where around 3k in the house alone, not including the pasture and property improvements, stalls in the barn as well as clean the 2ft of hard packed manure out of the barn. They also provide us with no services, if something breaks they have the not our problem attitude as well as when the water freezes and the drains freeze they expect us to fix it. The septic needs to be emptied and they expect us to pay for that as well. They can not have us act like the land owners and pay everything and then demand an insane amount of rent for a place that is barely fit to live in. I do mean barely as well, the roof leaks in 3 places and again we are expected to fix it or just live with it. We have put 4 buckets of tar on the roof but it makes no difference because we found out they had a roof fire and the boards that should hold the roof up are charred thru and broken so the roof sages down a few inches which is how we found out when DH went to tar it he was like WTH. We have done thousands of dollars worth of work on this place, including paying for 3 huge dumpsters of stuff to be removed from just the outside of the buildings and there is at least 5 more plus what they have in buildings plus the junk that will need to be put on trailers and taken to the junk yard, like 5 boats.

Legally yes they can say they will charge us whatever for rent but legally we can also use our original agreement and labor/cash invested to argue back. We technically paid the "rent" for the next 6 months before the new lease showed up. They made us sign the lease under distress.

 

[misfitmorgan]

As far as the "right" to move...yes we have that but they made sure to wait until the middle of hard winter and 1 day before christmas. The lease was also presented with only 22 days before we had to make the first rent payment. So it isnt really feasible for us to move almost 3,000 bales of hay, all of our livestock, and ourselves off the property in such a short period of time, which they know. They also know it would be near to impossible for us to find another place to rent in only 22 days.

 

[NH homesteader]

Wow what a mess. I don't know anything about legality of that sort of thing but I hope you can get it sorted out.

Sorry about DH's grandfather.

 

[farmerjan]

I am also sorry for your DH's loss of his grandfather. The holidays just seem to make a loss even harder to bear.
I do hope that you have the original agreement on paper, and I would not have signed a new lease, under duress or any other way, without a consult with a lawyer. Yes I know they cost money, but after all you have put into this place, if things are not EXACTLY right, with all the i's dotted and t's crossed, you could lose everything. Believe me, I have seen it happen firsthand. So please, get some good legal counsel, before you put one more penny into this, if you don't have any now.
Wanting something, and doing it the the morally right way as it seems you have tried to do, won't count for diddly if there are any legal loopholes they can go through. This latest lease thing shows that they are not morally bound to do things the right way, they are in it to see how much they can get out of you. And are probably delighted to have you "over a barrel" with the time of year making next to impossible to move. They are going to milk you for all they can as long as they can....and you may find that the only alternative is to move and possibly sell most everything you have worked your a** off for, in order to not go bankrupt. Things like the stalls in the barn, cleaning out 2 ft of manure won't cut a thing with a judge, you did it for yourself not for the property owner. Since you moved in it as is, a judge will say that you knew it was like that, if you were unhappy you should have filed a grievance against them, sought legal recourse and/or moved out. If you have the written original agreement, then you will have some room to fight, but every time you do something that as landlords they are supposed to do, then you are enabling them to "let you" continue to do the work. And they are not going to do anything except let you continue to pay the price.
I am sorry that it sounds as if I am a negative person, but I have seen too often how people like this work. They see you as a free ride to getting their neglected place back together, and if you continue to have financing delays or problems, then you won't have a leg to stand on if they want to put you out, and sell it to someone who has available financing....DO NOT TRUST THEM any longer...

 

[misfitmorgan]

I am also sorry for your DH's loss of his grandfather. The holidays just seem to make a loss even harder to bear.
I do hope that you have the original agreement on paper, and I would not have signed a new lease, under duress or any other way, without a consult with a lawyer. Yes I know they cost money, but after all you have put into this place, if things are not EXACTLY right, with all the i's dotted and t's crossed, you could lose everything. Believe me, I have seen it happen firsthand. So please, get some good legal counsel, before you put one more penny into this, if you don't have any now.
Wanting something, and doing it the the morally right way as it seems you have tried to do, won't count for diddly if there are any legal loopholes they can go through. This latest lease thing shows that they are not morally bound to do things the right way, they are in it to see how much they can get out of you. And are probably delighted to have you "over a barrel" with the time of year making next to impossible to move. They are going to milk you for all they can as long as they can....and you may find that the only alternative is to move and possibly sell most everything you have worked your a** off for, in order to not go bankrupt. Things like the stalls in the barn, cleaning out 2 ft of manure won't cut a thing with a judge, you did it for yourself not for the property owner. Since you moved in it as is, a judge will say that you knew it was like that, if you were unhappy you should have filed a grievance against them, sought legal recourse and/or moved out. If you have the written original agreement, then you will have some room to fight, but every time you do something that as landlords they are supposed to do, then you are enabling them to "let you" continue to do the work. And they are not going to do anything except let you continue to pay the price.
I am sorry that it sounds as if I am a negative person, but I have seen too often how people like this work. They see you as a free ride to getting their neglected place back together, and if you continue to have financing delays or problems, then you won't have a leg to stand on if they want to put you out, and sell it to someone who has available financing....DO NOT TRUST THEM any longer...

Everything was spelled out in the original lease even the part about cleaning the property/making the trailer liveable in exchange for a lease payment, if even states our right to purchase the property and the dollar amount after the 1 year lease was up. The delay on financing was their fault because we were waiting on them to do the things they agreed too which now say they will not do. The purchase agreement and all loan paperwork is currently with our lender and we are waiting for them to put all the paperwork thru. There should not be any problems or delays we can see atm but the lender did tell me it could take up to 90 days to close even though typically it only takes 30 days. The purchase agreement also demands 30 days after closing for them to be able to remove their stuff...after that it is our legal right to dispose of it. We do have everything written out as far as we could think to write it out stating in a legal binding fashion our rights and theirs. Even if we have to pay a months rent i will be fine with that but they are taking the cost of the well pump off the rent price or i will take it back to the store and they can go buy one themselves and if they dont provide us with one after we pay rent we will sue for our rent money back. In this state for them to be able to rent the property as a residence which they are doing they are required to have it up to code. The well and septic are both not within code, and neither is the dwelling so i doubt they would want it to go to court. I have talked to a lawyer about all of this already and he says we have a case against them including getting back the money we put into the property because it was leased out with the intention of buying the property at the end of 1 year so we have a reasonable expectation to recoup our monetary investment if the deal falls through or to be able to remove the improvements we made if we are not reimburse for them.

It's just stressful and a rotten thing for them to do to us.

 

[farmerjan]

Shameful doesn't cut it with people like they seem to be. Good for you to have everything written out and a lawyer in your corner. It sounds like you have covered your bases, so hopefully the loan will go through even though they have not done as they agreed. You might have some legal recourse for that too, like maybe they don't have another 30 days to get their stuff out???? I would have the lawyer push it a little though, and let him handle the rent payments so that you don't have to go through the aggravation and stress of dealing with them. Just tell them to talk to your lawyer....it might make them tow the line a little better and get it done quicker if they realize that you are not going to be intimidated and bullied by them.

 

[Bruce]

Sorry BYH didnt notify me of this post. If you have a "high" water table on the property it is very possible the pond was put in in place of the cistern. You used to be able to water livestock from surface water so many farmers would make ponds on their property or purposely fence across streams so their livestock has water access. You have to remember that back in the day there was no way you were going to bucket a few hundred gallons of water from your pump faucet in your kitchen out to the livestock daily. The cistern and even the open wells were not made to withstand that kind of use and would have run the cistern/well dry daily to get livestock water. In warmer climates they of course had things like windmill drawn water tanks but in cold climates like we live in it wasnt reasonable. Be option was ponds/streams, though streams were preferred as running water takes longer to freeze and requires constant colder temps to stay frozen solid.

The real history and lay out of old wells/cisterns can often never be figured out. Some properties have many wells simply because a well went dry or got full of silt at some point and the land owner decided...hey its time for a new well. Even in modern days now because do the same thing because they want either a deep well, a shallow well or even for reasons like trying to get rid of sulfer in their water.

Good points. My GUESS as to why the stone well in the area north of the wetland is where it is: So they could easily get water at will that wasn't full of 'whatever' solid stuff. At least one spring that entire well was under water (stones stop at ground level). Water can fill the well from the bottom or even sides (I don't think the stones are mortared) because it is at the edge of an area that has a high water table. The water in the well would be filtered a least a little by having to seep through the ground to get there. Not something I would drink without treatment of course, I'm sure plenty of bacteria could make it through. But animals watered with it that would otherwise be in the wetland to drink would probably be somewhat better off.

The wetland drains to a man made pond in the NE corner of the property when there is plenty of water. Thus, we have a seasonal river, um creek, um stream, um brook OK OK rivulet!

I hope your loan people can get their act in gear fast and take you off the rollercoaster!!

 

[misfitmorgan]

We had a horrible loss in my family please pray for us to be equipped to handle our grief.