Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with property

Give Me Money For Someone Else's Stuff.

Gianna — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:20:32 -0800

I am my mother's legal guardian. Can I get a loan to pay her bills using her property as collateral? I need to raise almost $3000 within 30 days or bad things will happen.

Last year, my Mom had a stroke. She is pwned in the head and I am her guardian.

I own nothing except a car; selling it is a last resort.

Mom has two houses -- my childhood home and the one she inherited from my grandmother just before her stroke. Because she owns two houses, she is disqualified from receiving any kind of assistance. I am trying, unsuccessfully, to sell the grandmother-house. It is the remainder of the mortgage on the grandmother's house -- $2,673.90 -- that I need to come up with, or they will foreclose.

I am extremely broke; I quit my former job to take care of mom and now work odd freelance jobs for not-enough-money. I was counting on the sale of the grandmother house (it's appraised at almost $300k) to get us through, but it's not happening.

Could I get a loan with grandma's house as collateral, even though I do not own it? I have mom's power of attorney.

If that won't work -- would it be worth it to take one of these credit card offers that arrive in a deluge and pay off the mortgage? I hate the idea of accruing more debt, but things are really damned dire.

Any other suggestions for raising that kind of money speedily are welcome. Anyone know a good pimp?

What is the best online property research service?

socrateaser — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:07:16 -0800

I need to provide a recommendation to my bosses on which online property research service the company should subscribe. We had been using Nite Owl which we were accessing via a third-party. Cost isn't too much of an issue, and we were happy with Nite Owl. But I wonder if there aren't others that are just as good? I've been looking at Parcel Quest and DataQuick. Any recommendations for others? We need data for the United States; California, specifically. Incidently, we don't use the information for marketing purposes. It's for socio-economic analyses in support of environmental impact assessments.

Counterfeit careers!

parmanparman — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:52:51 -0800

I love counterfeiting. Especially counterfeit toys and clothes, cars and other crazy items! I LOVE counterfeiting. I want to explore the possibility of a career in intellectual property law or other careers that have to do with counterfeiting (like: becoming a counterfeiter!) What books I should be reading about counterfeiting or intellectual property law?

Blogs worth looking at?

Places where I can meet/greet counterfeiters and learn the business?

Places where a layman interested in IP law could learn about careers?

Other ways to use IP law in a career environment?

Web sites for jobs in counterfeiting?

Death and domains

brandnew — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:39:06 -0800

How may one obtain access to a web site, or ownership of the domain, of someone who had recently died? The person who had created my friend's church's web site recently died, but he didn't leave behind a password for the domain account. What should my friend's church do to obtain ownership of the domain?

My friend has since temporarily created a new site to host the church's content. However, he would still like to obtain ownership of the old domain because of its legacy value. Many other sites still point to the old domain. Web searches for the church reference the old domain, and although the hosting has expired, Google still caches the old site and attempts to re-direct to the old domain.

Does my friend have any options, or must he wait until the domain expires in December?

Who Owns The Music?

fourcheesemac — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:32:28 -0800

Putting together a course on the history of music as property; I have a lot of the course figured out, but am looking for really well documented and interesting case studies or chronicles of disputes over the ownership of music. Obviously the recent history of internet file sharing and "illegal" downloading will comprise a major topic (along with issues surrounding Indigenous cultural and intellectual property, about which I know a lot more). So I'm especially interested in smart journalism and scholarship on new musical economies, public archives of piracy and copyright cases, and IP activist movements (like Creative Commons) in the online world. Open to other suggestions for topics and cases as well, and not limited to the 'net context necessarily. Useful academic literature readable by smart undergraduates would also be helpful.

How would a contractor paid a weekly rate by Company X make ownership distinctions between works created for X and works for others?

weston — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:19:30 -0800

I've been offered a new contract/consulting job where I would be paid not by the hour or for a specific deliverable, but at a flat weekly rate. Under this arrangement, how might I make intellectual property distinctions between works that will belong to this client, and outside works I may do for myself or others? This is a new situation for me. Every time I've done contract work before, the arrangement has been either:

(1) We want you to produce a deliverable, and we will give you $N for producing it. When you deliver and we pay you, we have <insert agreed rights here> to the deliverable.
(2) We will pay you $H per hour for time you spend working on things for us. Work produced on time you bill to us is owned by us as a work-for-hire unless otherwise agreed.

Under either arrangement, it's easy to make distinctions between ownership of work done for multiple clients. Under this new-to-me weekly-rate potential arrangement with Company X, there are no specific deliverables defined yet, just an expectation of minimum availability for work, and there's no billing by time, so I'm not sure how to handle this specific point.

Company X is in New York, and the agreement they have sent me appears to assign them all rights to my works which "in whole or in part, concern or relate to or are useful in the Company Business" if they're created during the term of the agreement.

Since some of the other projects I work on are potentially related to or useful in any web development project, and since a web application development is what I'll be doing for Company X, it seems to me there's a significant overlapping scope problem here. I'm trying to explore what else to propose that strikes a good faith balance between my interests and theirs.

Note: I realize you may not be a lawyer, and that if you are, you are not my lawyer, and that I am most likely to get the best possible answers to my question by taking it to a lawyer versed in New York employment and creative property law. So I welcome specific recommendations of such lawyers as one type of possible answer to my question.

However, I figure it's also possible there's a few common solutions, or there may be some readers here who've negotiated situations like this before and have come up with agreeable solutions, and I'd love to hear from anybody who feels they have some knowledge to contribute here.

There's no place like a home for sale

hollygoheavy — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:26:01 -0800

What recourse do I have when I'm stuck between 2 realtors? Way more inside I rented a house last September with a 1 year lease. If I chose to stay after that year, the lease would then go month to month. I had already decided to not renew the lease and to move back to my old town in September 08 when I was told last weekend that the owner had listed the house for sale. He listed the house with a different agent and agency than he uses to manage the house, which has made the property manager angry. The new listing agent pointed out to me that the dates on the lease that both myself and the property mgr signed are incorrect-they state a move in date of May 15, 2006 and a move out date of Sept 1, 2007 and a total rental amount of $2400 due for the length of the lease. The correct dates would have been 9/1/07 to 9/1/08 and the total rental amount would have been $14400. So, the lease is incorrect, however I did sign it without paying attention so I take full responsibility for that.

Now, the house has been listed for sale and I am expected to keep it ready to be shown. I have a 5 year old son and a 17 year old daughter and we are very tidy as usual, but the house will obviously not be "staged" on a moment's notice. I found a new house that I will be leasing and moving June 1st. According to the property mgr, the dates on the lease are meaningless, it's the intent that we have to go by, so my leaving June 1st means that I forfeit my $1200 deposit. I believe that the owner putting the house up for sale means that he broke the lease so I am entitled to my deposit back if the house is in the same or better condition as when I moved in (which it will be).

This morning I was upstairs not dressed when I heard a man's voice in my dining room. My 5 year old son was downstairs, so I ran down in my underwear to see a pest control guy in the house, saying he was here to do a termite inspection. I had not been notified at all about this and he had a key to get into the house. My son did let him in (and yes, there's been discussion and consequences for that) but the man would have let himself in anyway. I called the property mgr and she got hateful with me and told me to call the listing agent, that she had nothing to do with it, she didn't know anything about it and that frankly it wasn't her problem, SHE didn't let the guy in. I explained that I didn't sign a contract with the listing agent, I signed one with her, that I paid my rent to her and she was my point of contact. She told me that any issues with showing that house aren't her problem, that I should contact the listing agent. Frankly, I don't want to deal with the listing agent because she's just as hateful as the property mgr.

Is there any recourse I have on this? When I moved in I paid 1st, last and security deposit, so I won't be asking for anything back since May's rent is already paid and I'm leaving June 1st-but I would like the deposit back. I'd actually like to file some sort of complaint since I feel that the property mgr has been and is highly unprofessional and the listing agent is invading my privacy.

This is in Florida, both the property mgr and the listing agents are licensed realtors.

How much was that stuff worth?

nakedcodemonkey — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:11:37 -0800

How much was that stuff worth? I have to prepare a fairly precise net worth statement for Sept 93 on short notice. Most is easily pulled off old statements, but how do I come up with a solid fair market valuation for household/personal goods? It's peak tax season, so impossible to get an fast answer from an accountant. The only obvious calculator just throws validation errors. The place has been through several clutter purges and a couple buying sprees in the interim. Darned if I recall what was and wasn't here so long ago. What's a good method for estimating the value of household contents?

What do you wish you knew before becoming a landlord?

smitt — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:25:58 -0800

I've been thinking a lot about buying a property and renting it out. I have a good grasp on a lot of the essentials, but I was hoping for some input from hive mind as to what I should be prepared for, what I should have ready, and how best to handle being a landlord. I have already coverred a lot of the basics. I'll be doing this in the southern Ontario region, where I live. I have been spending hours upon hours on the CMHC website, and they have a ton of information, statistics, and more.
I am not worried about the mortgage, as I am involved with mortgages in my career and am very familiar.

What I'd love to hear is what sort of things you wish someone had told you before you bought a rental property.
I'd love to know what you wish you'd had ready ahead of time?

Thanks!

Are there such things as Interstate Property Exchanges?

Dub — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:40:11 -0800

Are there any agencies to help people exchange properties / relocate in the US (i.e. from one state to another)? Do large organizations HR help their employees? Is it something the Government does to help out? I have a relative on the East Coast of the US (near Boston) and he's retired, owns his own property and would like to move somewhere much warmer and drier (He considered Arizona and a few other states - right now, I can't recall which ones, though!).

Like many others, he's been stuck-in-a-rut for months - having a tough time getting his house sold, before having to look for something else.

So, with house prices and mortgages being what they are at the moment, I wondered if any property exchange agencies exist, or do large organizations help employees by matching people up in different states?

The idea being that if both parties accept the locations, and the properties, then only the difference in property values has to be considered (ignoring legal costs etc.) - and might be more convenient for both parties.

- e.g. is it worth speaking to {insert large organization-name} who may be relocating staff from Arizona to Mass.

I thought I'd ask here, in case anyone had some ideas / comments / suggested websites, etc.

Disclosure:BTW, I'm asking this question by proxy, for a relative in the US (I'll send him a link to this post) - I'm in the UK , so I'm not versed in US law/systems - I may be suggesting something which is not possible/sensible in the US - in which case, please let me/us know {oh, and I've been up all night and it's 0630 here, so I might not be too coherent - please excuse any obvious omissions/errors}
Thanks

Dealing with a delinquent renter -- Time to send another strongly-worded letter or bust kneecaps?

jkl345 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:57:22 -0800

What should I do about a (possible) problem renter who isn't paying on time and putting off late fees he owes me? I'm renting out my condo and have been have been having a problem with getting the renter to pay on time. (This is the first time I've rented out to him the place.) He's always paid the rent portion in full, but he owes me $150 in late fees and has put it off, I want to snuff this out quickly and not make this a chronic problem. I moved out state about a month ago but explained to the renter that the check had to be postmarked on the first of every month to be mailed to me. I still have a bunch of local friends acting as 'property managers' who can go and break kneecaps if necessary. Here's the official timeline:
* Three months ago, he signed a two year contract (his idea, he said he doesn't like moving around and wanted to have a place settled, and he seemed sincere) three months ago. He (40-something, employed as a welder, has a steady job) and his teen son recently moved back home from North Carolina after 'going through a rough divorce.' His references checked out. His credit was ok. His mom, who's a really nice school teacher, came with him to check out the place with him and seemed nice. He seems legit and like a genuine guy just starting over from a rough thing.

* Second month's rent, (February) he was 8 days late and didn't send it until the day I called him to ask about it. In the rental contract there's a $30 late fee for each day rent is late. He explained his lateness as he's only paid every other week and when the first of the month came, it was a week away before payday. He also said he was tapped out from buying furniture and getting settled. I empathized because I know what it's like to start over in a new place and have to buy everything at once, so I waived the first three days of late fees and charged him an even $150 late fee. I explained to him over the phone and followed up with a firm, but detailed letter explaining the consequences and late fee.

* Third month's rent, (March) was postmarked on March 3, so in theory, he could have put it in the mail on the 1st and just missed the postman for that day, the next day was Sunday and it was picked up on Monday. He sent me two checks -- one from him for a portion of the rent and one for $400 more from his mom's check account. (He obviously didn't have the money and had to borrow from his mom.) He also included a note that he can't pay me the $150 late fee because things are tight and that he'd pay me with the rent in April.

My considerations:
* It took a long time to find this guy -- 4 months -- there are a lot of douchebags in Florida looking to rent with bad credit, bad references, shady stuff going on. And it's a tough market to sell, so I can't sell and the idea of finding anothe renter from afar is a huge pain in the butt. He signed a two year contract and seems like a good guy trying to start over with his son, so I don't want to just throw this away instantly, but I don't want to be a sucker.
* I'm not dying for the money, (I don't live paycheck to paycheck and I'd have my mortgage/expenses coverd with or without his rent, but the money does help pay off the place quicker) but I don't want this to be a chronic problem -- it needs to end now.
* I'm trying to be a nice guy and give this guy a chance to start over. He seems to be genuine, I met his mom, and she seemed to be a good woman who's son is in a tight spot starting over, trying to help him out.
* And I don't want to be a jerk and every month have to check postmark dates and nickle and dime him on fees, but if he's not going to send the checks on time, this is going to be an issue and stress me out since I'm far away. (It's my first home I ever owned, so I'm a little bit protective over it.)

What should I do?
* Send the $150 to a collection agency and write him a strongly-worded letter telling him that if the payments aren't postmarked by the first of each month, they're all going to the collection agency?
* Contact a lawyer and send an official letter to pay up or start eviction proceedings?
* Charge him $30 for every day the $150 is late? (This is retarded because it'd be such an insurmountable cost and will just lead to more legal issues, him leaving, me being stressed about him burning down my place, etc.)
* Give him the benefit of the doubt, send him a "This is strike two, everything must be paid and postmarked on April 1, or it goes to a collection agency" letter?
* Don't say anything, hope he pays up on the 1st of April and hope this is just a rocky start for a guy starting his life over in a new state?
* Bust kneecaps?

I'm going to be on vacation in Florida for a few days at the beginning of next month, so I'm thinking about having a serious talk with him or a talk with a lawyer down there.

I know many of you are not lawyers, but any advice on resources, similar situations or where/how I can find a solution would be appreciated. If legal council is the only real option, anyone have any tips on finding good lawyers that aren't going to rape me financially? And how much do you think is reasonable to get raped for? $200 for a threatening letter of lawyer stationary? (I really don't know much about this.)

Thanks for your help!

I just want somewhere to live, honestly.

Jimbob — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:15:26 -0800

Am I about to get screwed over in regards to the house I'm buying, that's currently being renovated? The story:
Moving to a new city (Hobart, Australia) for a job in about 7 weeks.
We went there in January to look at houses, found one that was far superior to others, but that was currently having some minor renovations done; new carpets, some rendering on the external walls. We made an offer subject to finance being approved.
Applied for a loan through a mortgage broker. Mortgage broker was incompetent, loan was denied.
Applied for a loan through someone else, loan got conditional approval.
Mortgage lenders sent a valuer to the house, discovered that the renovations to be complete were not clearly stated in the contract, and they couldn't loan me the amount I was asking for the property.
My solicitor gets an extension to the date for finance approval, obtains an undertaking that the renovations will be complete.
Today arrives. The day finance is supposed to be approved by. Mortgage lender rings me and tells me the finance now won't be approved until the renovations have actually been completed to a satisfactory standard, "for my protection".
So, we're now past the close of business on the day that finance was supposed to be approved by, and my vendors are going to be told that they have to have the renovations complete before my loan is approved. Except they haven't been told that yet, because everyone seems to be missing everyone else's phone calls.

Question: Am I about to be fucked over? It seems the risks in this situation lie completely with me. The vendors could pull out of the deal tomorrow. Or, the vendors could do the renovations, the bank could say they're not good enough and I don't get the house, but the vendors just go on and try to sell it to someone else.

I know this is probably a bit of a hazy question, with too many personal factors involved, but has anyone else had experience in situations like this? Are vendors likely to pull out of a deal because we keep asking for finance extensions? Or does the fact that we've been going about this for so long mean they're likely to stick with it? Is the bank leading me on? Does this sort of thing, demanding renovations are complete before approving the loan, happen often?

Help me figure out if there's any way to claim a deceased family member's unclaimed property

mintchip — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:22:38 -0800

Help me figure out if there's any way to claim a deceased family member's unclaimed property My father (who was estranged from the family for a while) is deceased.

He had funds in a bank account at the time of his death, which was almost a decade ago. Internet searches revealed the dollar amount for his unclaimed funds. After talking to family members, I was able to get the name and account number at the bank where the funds were. In fact, I have the unused checks from this account.

Problem is, the bank where the funds were held no longer exists...it was bought and absorbed by a larger bank several years ago. Calls to the new bank yielded no information as the account number is no longer valid. I believe I can pursue the matter with the state where my father lived, but I believe I need the death certificate and this is long lost. I don't know how to get a new death certificate issued.

Do any of you have enough knowledge to walk me through the process for tracking down and claiming this unclaimed property? The dollar amount is not huge, but it's large enough that I think it's worth pursuing. Not only that, this is all that I have of my father, and I'd like to think this would be a gift that he'd be giving me all these years later. (I've talked to my other family members. Since they are quite comfortable financially they have said that they are not interested in pursuing this matter and are happy to let me have the money, if I am able to claim it. They have agreed to sign any necessary paperwork, etc.)

Time is of the essence because I believe it's nearing the time limit for unclaimed property.

We adore our cat and we're good parents to her. Do we have to give her up?

empty commercial spaces — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:35:31 -0800

Our former roommate had a cat, which he was babysitting for his ex. He lived with us for 6 months and barely acknowledged this wonderful, personable animal - they hadn't bothered to give her a name - and my girlfriend and I became close with her and kept her for 2 months after the roommate moved out. Now he has reappeared and wants to take her back to a lonely, neglected existence. We want to say no. How can we do this? My girlfriend and I are both in our 20s and live in an apartment in NYC. We found this particular roommate through Craigslist.

He moved in with a cat in July, which he and his ex had owned for about a year and a half. The story is, they broke up and he had to keep a bunch of her stuff while she was traveling. The cat never had been given a name, which we thought was cute at until we saw that he rarely ever went near her or talked to her and his ex didn't seem to want her either. She's the sweetest, friendliest cat I've ever met and she quickly became attached to us. We gave her a name (Yuki) and she ended up staying in our room all day and eventually sleeping in our bed every night. We're in love with her and we both work from home so we're able to shower her with attention.

When the roommate moved out two months ago, we offered to keep her for as long as we could, hoping he would just give her over to us. He said she could stay until the beginning of January, when his mysterious ex (who we've only had one, slightly unfriendly encounter with) would take her back to Chicago with her. After two months of domestic bliss, I got an email from him that said "I'm coming to take the cat back on Monday" and to grab some DVDs he left.

I don't really know what to do. He a generally nice, intelligent guy, but he's a little weird about possessions - one time he got really freaked out because someone used a 50 cent plastic bowl he owned in the microwave. Yuki, our beloved Yuki, seems to be on the same level to him as that plastic bowl. He's sort of in denial about the cat being close to us - the only time I heard him acknowledge it was when he was arguing with his ex on the phone because neither of them wanted to keep her.

Strangely, though, he would never admit to this, and now he's coming to take her away be ignored for eternity. Aside from my own selfish reasons to keep Yuki - she makes me happy - I feel obligated to protect her from that fate. Though it seems hard to believe, he will act incredulous if I try to explain the situation and will NOT want us to keep her. He will even act as if we're unfit to take care of her.

So. Do we ask to talk to the ex directly, explain the situation and offer to buy her? What if they just say, "No! MY cat!" which we're expecting based on previous interactions? Short of going into hiding, what are our options here?

Give me a fire by Christmas, please!

bunnycup — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:24:09 -0800

What, if any, are the effects of express warranties by landlord and landlord's agents under New Jersey landlord tenant law? Okay, yes, I am a lawyer, but I'm out of my zone of comfort and in a brand new state. Please take pity on me!

Prior to renting my home, the landlord's property agent (not my agent) represented that the fireplace and chimney were safe for use as a result of passing inspection. Further, during lease negotiations, as a part of an attempt to persuade my husband and I to accept liability for all repairs of any kind, two employees of the landlord represented that full inspections had been done within the last 12 months, the house had passed, and thus we could forsee no actual risk under such a clause. We nevertheless declined to agree to accept that liability.

Prior to using the fireplace, my husband would like us to obtain confirmation of its safety for use. My written query to the landlord was responded to as follows:

"You are correct that the standard NJ home inspection was done. However, that was only a visual inspection for any structural damage to the exterior, as this was the only inspection we were required to do. "

I feel that I received an express warranty that that the fireplace was safe from the realtor (a designated agent of the landlord), who used the use of a fireplace as a selling point, along with a more general (but also express) warranty from the property managers that a detailed inspection had taken place. I rely on no implied warranties of any kind, and do not assume that because the stove is in the house, it is safe to use.

I am not familiar with NJ law; I do not (and will not in future) practice in NJ. My prior education is with NYS and NYC property law, which as you may know is often quite different from other states. Without asking that anyone do in depth research here, any quick thoughts on an argument that I've got an express warranty as to the fireplace, or whether there is any wiggle room whatsoever for a contractual promissory estoppel type argument? I realize this is a fairly technical question, and am asking solely for the purpose of determining whether further research on my part would be worthwhile. If someone knows I am wasting my time, hearing that would be useful. I will not be relying on your answers as the basis of further correspondence, etc.

Thanks in advance for saving Christmas!

Finding a class B property rental.

zennie — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:48:36 -0800

How do we find a home for our dojo? My martial arts club is looking for a class B space to lease in the Washington DC metro area. We require basic utilities and enough room for weapons practice, in a space that's on the ground floor, or at least where neighbors won't mind the sound of people beating each other up. The closer to civilization, the better (main streets good, industrial back alleys not so much), as budget allows.

We'd enjoy building anything else we might need for the dojo, and we'd love to get started and get established. We've got dreams and plans, baby. There's just this one problem in our way.

What's an efficient way to go about finding a space we can use?

Playing House Fairly

iknowizbirfmark — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:10:12 -0800

I'm planning on buying a house with my SO. We will contribute different amounts to the down payment and the monthly payments. How do we calculate how much of the resultant property each of us owns, especially when we don't know how the property will (or will not!) appreciate? The amounts we contribute to the down payment will probably be pretty different, maybe even zero for one person, and that person will probably pay less of the monthly payment, too. We will probably draw up some sort of contract, to be terminated by marriage if there is one, and will probably end up being jointly and severally liable for the mortgage or mortgages. Also assume that we will work out all the legal issues. We're just trying to decide if we should go with some formula that will describe what percentage of ongoing non-mortgage costs each party is required to pay, and then go from there. Are there any elegant ways of dealing with this?

We communicate and get along very well (I know, the best laid plans...) so I am not really worried abour reaching an agreement about this or managing things, even if things fall apart. I'm just not sure what a fair way of arranging this is.

There is no need to provide "DTMFA" or "it's a bad idea' advice, and I know that YANAL, YANATA or atleast you are not mine. Assume that we will appropriately document whatever we agree to (with appropriate counsel) so that it is enforceable against us.

Should we pay this fee (UK)?

altolinguistic — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:13:55 -0800

Does anyone know anything about UK property law? Can they make us pay this? Conveyancer demanding small payment they should have asked us for a year ago. Background - my partner and I bought a house a year ago, and he sold his flat at the same time. As far as we were concerned, both sales were complete, we had moved in, and the buyer of the flat sold the flat on in March (we found this out by looking at an online property prices site).

A few weeks after we moved, our conveyancer sent a letter to us saying that a 'registration fee' of 0.05% of the sale price was owing to the management company that owns the freehold of the flat, and that this payment is 'traditionally made' by the vendor, and that my partner, as the vendor, therefore owes £51.25. As far as we were concerned the sale was complete, and 'tradition' is not an adequate reason for paying anyone anything, so we ignored the letter.

Fast forward to last week when we received a copy of the letter requesting payment, along with a cover letter asking quite nicely for the money. Then this week we received another letter from our conveyancer, sounding more worried this time, with a copy of a letter from the buyer's solicitor to our conveyancer containing the enlightening phrase 'With respect, you knew what payments were required from your clients prior to completion and this sum should have been retained by yourselves from your clients to cover these costs'.

So it looks like the conveyancers have made a mistake and are trying to recoup the money from us. What is our position? Should we pay? Are we obliged to pay? How should we approach the conveyancers? To be clear, this is in the UK, we don't seem (yet) to be under any threat of legal action if we don't pay this, and all letters so far have been civil.

Trespassing hunters

Baby_Balrog — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:26:47 -0800

How to deal with trespassing hunters. Before I begin - please let me state that I am not "anti-hunting" - I have hunted. However, my mom's property extends in a 14-acre rectangle back into the woods, and we've done a good job preserving it as a natural space. It includes a large field surrounded by dense forests where deer like to hang out. My mom loves her deer and feeds them, so there are many deer. Unfortunately, the property is difficult to monitor because it is pretty rugged terrain. Recently, the adjacent 10-acre parcel was split into half-acre lots and sold to to a bunch of other Michiganders, many of whom love to hunt and are pleased to have a nice big forest behind their houses in which to do so. Illegally. Today, we walked the property and found evidence of two treeblinds. We placed additional signs that said, "No Hunting. Premises Monitored. Violators will be Prosecuted."

I don't want people hunting out there because my mom's house has a bunch of windows that face the woods. Also, recently two hunters went tromping through the back yard to recover a kill that had run up by the house. It freaked her out and she called the police, but she's afraid of "making a fuss" because where we live people can get a little... retaliatory. And I can't really enlist the neighbors because I think some of the neighbors are the biggest offenders.

This whole situation vexes me. Frankly, I don't want people shooting guns in the woods behind my mom's house. My mom abhors deer-hunting. The signs don't seem to be stopping them. Ideas?

Using 401K & Roth IRA to purchase second property

endlessknot — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:22:18 -0800

Using 401K & Roth IRA to purchase second property ?? Is this possible ?? Any suggestions. Thanks, ek

I don't want to sell

drleary — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:13:17 -0800

Can my parents sell a piece of property without my consent? My parents and I own a 5 acre piece of property in Oklahoma. Both of their names and my name is on the deed. Can they sell the piece of property if I'm not willing to sell it?

I feel a little guilty for having done this, but

hadjiboy — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:13:03 -0800

I’ve ratted out my company to a prospective client. This all started about three months ago, when I was sitting at home, with nothing better to do. My former manager, who quit the company that I’d left (or rather was asked to leave, since I had a hard time selling people stuff which I knew to be valueless), called me up and offered me a job at a new company that was starting up. I was excited, to say the least, especially since he had remembered me from a couple of months ago, and had my number with him, so when he offered me the chance to work with him, I jumped at it (in part because I felt obligated). Also, he told me that the job consisted of making appointments, something which I felt would be a welcome relief, after the soul crushing work of Telecalling.

But, as I later discovered, the appointments that I had to make were reminiscent of Telemarketing—I’d have to call up people, and convince them to give me some of their financial information (their House Market Value; their Mortgage; their Combined Annual Income)—and pitch to them how our company would offer them “Guaranteed Rental Income” on their Rental Properties, which we would arrange for them to buy (investment free—I’m still not sure how that works). Now, this sounded fishy to me, but the management was adamant that it worked, and had us memorize a script which declared as much.

So, my job entailed, calling up people, and setting up appointments with them and one of our senior consultants, who would go and meet them, face-to-face, to explain to them the details of how the proposal would work. To make matters more enticing—they also had us tell the customers how we would take care of everything—finding the tenants, making sure they paid in time, taking care of any damages made to the property… etc, etc. My only problem was, I still felt a little iffy about the whole thing, and so did my customers—who would usually say—“Nothing’s free in this world, mate” or, “If it sounds too good to be true—it is”, which is something that I couldn’t disagree with. So, after about a month of going through the torture of continuous “Not interested”, “Piss off” and the occasional “fuck you”, I finally had a call with someone who works in the Investment industry, and I thought this was my chance to get to the bottom of this. I explained to him my predicament, and he was very understanding about it, and said that it did sound too good to be true, and that if they’re guaranteeing the income, why do they need all the financial information?

So he took down the company’s name, and said he’d do a little bit of digging around. (I’ve made a note of his number, and plan to call him up in a day or two.) Until this point, I felt great—like I was doing the “right” thing, but as soon as I hung up the call, I felt like shit. I know I shouldn’t, that if it’s something that’s not legitimate that I’m involved in—that I have every right to know. But the company did hire me, and I am working for them.

So my question to you is—should I feel guilty for this? Have anyone of you heard anything about Guaranteed Rental Income? Does it work? And, if you were in my shoes, how long would you wait before you made a decision to quit?

Will fixing something I'm not legally bound to fix set a legal precedent with my neighbors?

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:49:18 -0800

Tree branch fell on next-door neighbor's house. He has asked me to take care of it. This occurred in Georgia. The branch was fairly large, but there is no major damage to their house. This happened several weeks ago and only in the past week has the neighbor asked me to do something about it, saying he had "talked to the city and they said it was your responsibility".

I had previously checked and what I can gather, according to Georgia law, the neighbor is responsible for whatever occurs on their property, unless they asked us to fix something in writing beforehand, which they did not.

But the neighbor is rather poor and I feel somewhat morally responsible. If I go ahead and have the branch removed, does that set a precedent which implies I'm responsible for any other branches that fall on their or other houses (it's a big tree, that has branches over several properties.

How do we help a 17 year old kicked out of the house?

Leenie — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:35:12 -0800

How do we help a 17 year old kicked out of the house get his property and identification? The story:

He was born to a family with two older siblings. The birth mother gave the two youngest up for adoption. The adopted mother raised them until her death. The oldest of the adopted kids adopted all of the others and basically assumed the 'mother' role. She and her husband raised all of the kids. The couple used the two brothers Social Security survivor benefits to help raise the kids.

At the age of 18, each of the kids is kicked out of the house, only those under 18 remain. Almost two years ago, his older brother passed away, leaving him without a known blood relative.

Our friend was kicked out two month's shy of his 18th birthday. He was told to never come back. He only has the clothes on his back. They will not even accept a phone call from him now. The property has a new gate and lock on it.

In his bedroom is all of his identification and personal property.

If we involve the Police, this can get messy. Would he be taken back home where they don't want him? Foster care? Left to decide for self? Who knows... But we need the Police involved to at least get his ID. They couple has started throwing away and donating all of the possessions he left behind. If we wait until he is 18, there may no be anything left.

Among the possessions are photographs of his dead brother. If we wait, they may be gone too...

There is also a birth certificate in the room of the person with the "mother" role. He has never seen it, does not know if it contains birth parent info, or not. Among the photographs is a photo of the oldest sibling with the two that where given up for adoption, a sister, from his real mother. A sister. This photo was taken before the adoption took place.

Most of the clothes, music, etc can be replaced. ID and photographs are the only real items in question. The other property doesn't matter much.

Any advice on how we can help him?

Does a cheap summer house still exist?

um_maverick — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:52:28 -0800

Are there any reasonably-priced summer homes left in New England? (more inside) I went whitewater rafting this past weekend in the middle of Maine, and absolutely loved the whole cabin-on-the-river idea. The problem is that we were 4 hours north of Boston - that's a bit too far. Does anybody know of any reasonably-priced areas within 90 minutes or so of Boston for waterfront (ocean, lake, river) property? Obvious places like Cape Cod are way out of the price range, but there's got to be a lake or a river *somewhere* that hasn't been discovered yet... Not looking for a specific house, but more a particular area that's still reasonable.