I spent most of my adolescence in one home and I became very attached to it. I became so attached to it that I owned it one day. My story of how I owned it and lost it is quite fascinating. When I was around 20 years of age my father informed me that he was going to sell the family home and I was devastated. He then informed me that he would sell me the house virtually for what he owed on it. I went and talked to a couple of banks and they informed me that I didnt have the credit to purchase the home and advised me to talk to my dad about taking over his payments. I approached my father with this idea and he accepted and I began to make the mortage payments each and every month. This would continue on for ten years and the loan was paid down to about $26,000 from a starting point of $36,000.
I have always been in the construction industry and over the years I started to remodel the home and since it was considered mine even though my dad still owned it I always paid for repairs and expenses out of my pocket. I remodeled the home, replaced the furnace, roof, and air-conditioner. Then one day I get an alarming piece of mail. It was a letter from an investment company demanding $8,000 dollars or more in back taxes. I had always assumed that the taxes were being paid by the bank out of the loan. Well that wasn’t the case, my dad wasn’t paying them and I was very close to losing the property. I went to the bank that held my fathers mortage to see if they were aware of this and found out that they were not. After a couple of meetings the bank informed me to vacate the house that they were going to pay the back taxes and foreclose on my dads property.
I didnt know what to do I had made these payments all these years and made all these home improvements and stood to lose it all. Then it dawned on me what I do. When one of my construction customers doesn’t pay me for services I place mechanics liens on their properties. I figured how is this any different, so armed with reciepts I went to our local court house and placed a mechanics lien on my fathers property for $25,000. When the bank found out that I had done that, they changed their stance and offered to pay the back taxes and attach them to a loan for me to purchase the house, if I would release the liens. I was thrilled, so I accepted the banks offer and finally owned my childhood home. Lesson learned though, if I ever make the same deal for one of my two daughers I’ll pay the taxes or have the mortage company take them on escrow.
