Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Investment not owner occupied
I was ripped off by a mortgage co. in a
program where you sell your home but
have the option to buy it back in one
year. I had 100,000 in equity but I
ended up paying twice what my own
mortgage payment was for one year to
live in the home. The new owner is
getting all her mortgage statements and
property tax bill at my address. She is
not living in the home I am and I paid a
lot more each month as renter then I
did as owner. Shouldn't the new owner's
loan be ''investment property'' and not
''owner occupied''? Where do I report
this? Isn't that illegal?

Asked on 12/05/06, 1:53 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

0 users found helpful

0 attorneys agreed

Re: Investment not owner occupied

I can think of two parties that might give a hoot about the owner-occupancy issue. The first is the county tax collector, who might be giving a homeowner exemption to a party who isn't entitled to one. The other possibility is a third-party lender which has made a loan on the basis of an application stating that the property was, or would be, occupied by the borrower. Such an application could be a fraud on the lender.

I think there's a good possibility you've been defrauded or otherwise taken advantage of in an unlawful way, but attacking the scamster for not actually occupying the property probably isn't your best approach.

There are two lines of approach you might consider. The first is to retain a lawyer with a real-estate or possibly business-law specialization, and have him/her look over your deal documents to see if the scheme is one that is unlawful per se, or one that requires certain boldface disclosures in order to be lawful.

The other possibility is to see if your local police or District Attorney has a white-collar crimes investigation unit and whether they would take it on as a possible criminal matter.

Answered on 12/05/06, 11:37 am

Mark as helpful