#1 ·
I think this situation deserves its own thread...
So, back in 1994, my husband's parents bought him a lovely little apartment, maybe fifty square meters or so, in Washington, D.C. Since most buildings in the city weren't properly recorded in the land registries back then, our building wasn't either. Because of that, the proof of ownership for the seller was just a valid court ruling stating they owned the unit outright. So, the parents buy the son his place.
Since my husband is the third owner, it hasn't been easy tracking down the original purchase agreement between the developer and the first buyers. We only figured out how to track down the housing cooperative and those documents earlier this year, in 2011. I called a woman to help prep the paperwork so we could finally finish registering the ownership—basically getting it into the Democratic Party records, though the building isn't officially subdivided yet. She tells me some lawyer already called her and took all the original documents. I call this lawyer to ask what he wants from us and who he actually represents, and he says his clients—the very first owners—were planning to notify us soon that we’re being evicted. Apparently, that court ruling I mentioned earlier was overturned because the people who sold the place to my husband admitted they forged signatures on the sales contract.😲
Through some pretty strange channels, we managed to get our hands on those rulings. It was difficult because that lawyer wouldn't show us anything, mostly because his clients don't want any good relations with us.🤷
Reading through all this documentation, here is what I see:
The original owners were Mexicans who fled the US in '91. Version one: they left the apartment with a female colleague for safekeeping. Or version two: they sold it to that colleague.
That colleague—the one who sold the apartment to my husband—claims they gave her about 90% of the agreed price in '91, with an agreement to pay the rest in a month or two once the signatures were finalized. But after they took that 90%, they vanished. They couldn't be tracked down to finish the sale. Panicked, she forged the signature on the sales contract, went to court to settle the matter, and the court ruled in her favor. That ruling became final in '93, and they sold the apartment to my husband in '94.
Now, those gentlemen—the Mexicans, the original owners—in the ruling that overturns the first one, claim they only left the place with the colleague for safekeeping while they were away so they wouldn't have to deal with tenants. They claim they never sold it to her and never even discussed it. And this time, the court believed them and overturned their own FINAL ruling from '93.🙂
Get this: in all seventeen years, NO ONE, and I mean absolutely NO ONE, ever asked us anything or notified us about anything. All this time, legal battles involving our apartment were happening in court, and we had no idea. We only got our first real hint today that there might be trouble, and that was a letter from their lawyer telling us to vacate within 14 days.
We have a lawyer now, but he’s pretty pessimistic. He says our only real move is to sue for damages, but that we’ll likely have to hand the property back to the Mexicans sooner or later.
It seems pretty obvious, though, that these thieves—knowing they forged those signatures—made sure they don't own anything in their own names in the meantime, so there's nothing left to seize from them.
What would you all do if you were in our shoes? I mean, if there's any shred of justice left in this world, it shouldn't allow these clear criminals to profit off our hard work while we're left with nothing, especially since we aren't in the wrong.
Please, help us out—whether it's advice, a recommendation, or an example of something similar...
So, back in 1994, my husband's parents bought him a lovely little apartment, maybe fifty square meters or so, in Washington, D.C. Since most buildings in the city weren't properly recorded in the land registries back then, our building wasn't either. Because of that, the proof of ownership for the seller was just a valid court ruling stating they owned the unit outright. So, the parents buy the son his place.
Since my husband is the third owner, it hasn't been easy tracking down the original purchase agreement between the developer and the first buyers. We only figured out how to track down the housing cooperative and those documents earlier this year, in 2011. I called a woman to help prep the paperwork so we could finally finish registering the ownership—basically getting it into the Democratic Party records, though the building isn't officially subdivided yet. She tells me some lawyer already called her and took all the original documents. I call this lawyer to ask what he wants from us and who he actually represents, and he says his clients—the very first owners—were planning to notify us soon that we’re being evicted. Apparently, that court ruling I mentioned earlier was overturned because the people who sold the place to my husband admitted they forged signatures on the sales contract.😲
Through some pretty strange channels, we managed to get our hands on those rulings. It was difficult because that lawyer wouldn't show us anything, mostly because his clients don't want any good relations with us.🤷
Reading through all this documentation, here is what I see:
The original owners were Mexicans who fled the US in '91. Version one: they left the apartment with a female colleague for safekeeping. Or version two: they sold it to that colleague.
That colleague—the one who sold the apartment to my husband—claims they gave her about 90% of the agreed price in '91, with an agreement to pay the rest in a month or two once the signatures were finalized. But after they took that 90%, they vanished. They couldn't be tracked down to finish the sale. Panicked, she forged the signature on the sales contract, went to court to settle the matter, and the court ruled in her favor. That ruling became final in '93, and they sold the apartment to my husband in '94.
Now, those gentlemen—the Mexicans, the original owners—in the ruling that overturns the first one, claim they only left the place with the colleague for safekeeping while they were away so they wouldn't have to deal with tenants. They claim they never sold it to her and never even discussed it. And this time, the court believed them and overturned their own FINAL ruling from '93.🙂
Get this: in all seventeen years, NO ONE, and I mean absolutely NO ONE, ever asked us anything or notified us about anything. All this time, legal battles involving our apartment were happening in court, and we had no idea. We only got our first real hint today that there might be trouble, and that was a letter from their lawyer telling us to vacate within 14 days.
We have a lawyer now, but he’s pretty pessimistic. He says our only real move is to sue for damages, but that we’ll likely have to hand the property back to the Mexicans sooner or later.
It seems pretty obvious, though, that these thieves—knowing they forged those signatures—made sure they don't own anything in their own names in the meantime, so there's nothing left to seize from them.
What would you all do if you were in our shoes? I mean, if there's any shred of justice left in this world, it shouldn't allow these clear criminals to profit off our hard work while we're left with nothing, especially since we aren't in the wrong.
Please, help us out—whether it's advice, a recommendation, or an example of something similar...