Made a big Deposit on a House and landlord spent the money need help on what to do?
March 25th, 2011 | 
Author: I made a $53,000.00 deposit in the house which is a Lease Agreement Contract the landlord made which I sign without having an attorney look at. On the agreement he was to deposit the money into a account and collect interest on it which he keeps and his wife told me they paid on the house and now i’m 2 months behind on my rent and they trying to evict and told me that my $53,000.00 is gone and i wont get it back need help????
Posted in Landlord Tenant Law
look up renter rights, call legal aide
or go to http://www.211.org or call 211 on the phone and ask if there is any advocates in your area.
and u probably wont, and you dont have much hope legally depending on what and how the contract is worded, most lease purchase agreements state that you must conclude the transaction by a certain date, in other words obtain financing for the balance by other lenders, that you must make monthly timely payments and that if u default you lose the deposit, therefore if u r 2 months behind you are a cooked goose. read your lease agreement it is the same as if you had obtained a mortgage and the seller, has the right to foreclose if you fall behind, get caught up and try to save the property, if you try to finance and the seller tells the lender u r 2 months down no one is going to finance you. your only option is to work with the seller. sorry
You entered into a Lease Purchase Agreement in which you put $53k in option money for the option to purchase at some future date as I understand it. Now, for some reason you are no longer making rent payments.
Why?
You would have continued to make the payments until such time as you picked up the option to purchase by qualifying for and receiving a mortgage for the agreed upon sale price correct?
I have never heard of an option payment that high. Ever.
That’s water under the bridge now.
I would get a knowledgeable real estate attorney to look at the contract you signed. The contract itself may be illegal.
In other words, you can agree to anything in writing, but if what you agree to is illegal, based on usury, etc. the contract is itself unenforceable. (extreme example: a contract based on murder for hire is an illegal contract).
You need to sue this property owner, get your money back and get out of that property.
http://lawyers.findlaw.com/
http://www.lawyers.com/
In the meantime contact social services, catholic charities and the salvation army in your area and get rental assistance to help with your payments on the home while you are there.
Also contact the landlord tenant division of your county or city housing authority and ask for advice as well. Most likely a crook of this caliber will have to be made to quake in his boots by an astute real estate attorney with experience in contracts and especially the gray area of lease options.