Anonymous wrote:Disclosure ------> I am absolutely clueless about Real Estate, but ignorance does not excuse my behavior if I am truly in the wrong here.
So my husband and I were having some financial issues a few years ago, we both got laid off from our jobs and were in a bind and had a one year old daughter.
My good good friend, Helpful Helen, who I have known since High School felt terrible for us + wanted to help us out so she and her husband ran an idea by us and we agreed. They offered to purchase a home in their names, then rent it to my husband and I and then I could run a home daycare out of it which if I ran it at full capacity, I could make really good money. Meanwhile, my husband found a good job luckily at the same time. Before this, my husband and I had tried unsuccessfully to rent a house on our own, but when we told the homeowners I was going to run a home daycare, no one wanted to rent to us. That is when my friend, Helen decided to buy the house to rent to us.
Anyway, so she and her husband take out a 2nd mortgage, they already are paying one on the house they live in currently.
My husband and I, along with our child move in and we agree to pay her the fair market value in rent which is basically her monthly mortgage payment. I also give her that amount as a security deposit. I find many families who need childcare and have no problem working at capacity and making my rent every month on time.
Now in my state of CA, a new homeowner must live in the newly purchased home ONE FULL YEAR after purchasing the home, which Helen fudged on so she could help us out and I understood that. So we had to get our utilities in Helen's name the first year, but after that, everything went smoothly.
Well after about 15 mos. in the house, my husband got offered a better job out of state, in Utah to be exact. We felt bad since Helen had bought the house just to help us out, etc., but my husband wanted to take the job plus my parents live in Utah so we decided to move. I sent Helen the required "30-day notice" by law and also left her a voice message.
She and her husband came over and we got into it to say the least.
They claimed they did us a HUGE favor by getting us the house and that they were getting "nothing" out of it. They said now we were leaving them and they were "stuck" with this house and that we majorly screwed them over.
My husband says we did nothing legally or morally wrong. He said we were paying their mortgage for them, and that they in the end would have gotten a free house out of it.
He says after we left since we completed the year already, all they had to do was just rent it out to someone else and that would pay their mortgage.
Is is that easy?
I am on the fence.
Please advise.....
Yeah, they WOULD HAVE -- that was the deal -- but since you didn't keep your end of the bargain, they are now NOT going to get a free house out of it. Do you not see the difference? Wow, you are walking away from good friends. Good luck finding friends like that again in your lifetime.