How about this, guys! A friend/lawyer(I know that's a contradiction of terms) did a deed for me on a rehab project. He screwed up. That meant I couldn't sell the property until it was fixed.
4 years later, I had to hire someone else to fix the problem. With interest on the project, depreciation of the property (bought and rehabbed just months before the 2008 real estate collapse) legal fees for 2 property specialists/lawyers, property taxes and insurance, etc. I'm on the hook for over $77,000 over the original $100,000.00 investment in purchase and rehab costs. Legal fees for the correction of the deed were $31,000.00. The original fee from the guy who screwed up was $450.00.
But it gets worse. I got a judgement of negligent representation against him, and found out that, in spite of the requirement, the guy did not have errors and admissions insurance which would have helped pay the cost of his error (He'll probably lose his license over this). And, when he checked with the bank to get a loan to pay damages, they wanted proof of income. As a lawyer, he had to submit his personal income tax file for the last three years.
Guess what? He hasn't filed taxes for 12 YEARS!
Word to the wise. If you buy property and need a deed prepared, go to a guy who DOES LOTS OF DEEDS!
The good news is, he has about $3 million in real property assets (inherited farm and warehouse).
I've attached a lien on everything he owns. At least my kids will get something out of the mess when the jerk dies!
Russ
Incidentally, the screw up was missing a 1981 exchange between the then owner of my property and a neighbor
of a strip about 12 inches wide by 6 feet at the property line. The exchange was made to straighten out the property line. My "guy" was the 5th lawyer in a row who missed that transaction when preparing the deeds. Like lemmings, they just kept copying the previous deed without verification of the platt book.
Edited by captain Russ (01/25/13 10:04 AM)
Previous Topic
Index