The oil section on HUD agreement was left blank on purpose at closing, and now we’re being sued. Will we win?

Question

My husband and I bought a house six months ago. The people we bought it from were buying new construction, and it wasn't done by the time of the closing. We told our realtor that they could stay there for a month (we were in a non-lease living situation, so we could move out with little to no notice), but that we would be asking them for rent. She passed this to their realtor, who told us that the sellers weren't willing to pay rent, but that they were willing to leave whatever oil was in the oil tank without asking for us to pay it back. We thought it was a nice gesture, and agreed. A month later, we moved in, and all was well. As a result, the space where you'd enter the amount of oil and price that the buyers would pay as part of closing costs on the HUD agreement was purposely left blank, and was signed off by us and the sellers at closing. (Continue into details -- this was too long to fit into this one part)

Answer 1

You  will win.

Here is the problem....the oil section was left BLANK and you signed it, AND they signed it.

Maybe you would have agreed to give them $315, maybe you wouldn't have agreed to a $1.00.

It really doesn't even matter that the sellers stayed there for another month without paying rent, even though they will have a tough time explaining why you would have agreed to it for free...which is not reasonable, considering you still had to pay interest for that month.

The sellers had an opportunity to review both the contract and the HUD at closing and address the issue then.  No mention was made of money being put into escrow...the deal is CLOSED AND OVER.

Just because they are trying to backtrack and just b/c you got sued, doesn't mean they'll win.

I would come up with a figure of $1,000 and countersue them for rent for that month that they stayed...because they agreed to that about as much as you agreed to the $315...you see what I mean?

Also, file a complaint against the Realtor that represented you with the Real Estate Commission and any time you had to miss from work tending to the lawsuit, costs, etc...b/c she should reimburse you for all.

End of story.

Answer 2

Go to court with all the e-mails and statements from your agent and theirs.  Take your HUD 1 statement as well.  You shouldn't have to pay the sellers for the oil.

Answer 3

A few questions:

1) Did the old owners live in the home after it legally became yours? If yes, the rent thing wasn’t negotiable. They could either choose to pay rent or they had to leave. They had no right no to tell you they weren’t going to pay rent while living in your home.

2) If you did own the home, and utilities were still in the old owner’s names, you should talk to an attorney about whose legal responsibility that oil was at the time it was purchased. My personal opinion is that if you have a utility in your name, you incurred the expense of said utility. And if you were supposed to pay for it, I would think that would be stated in the contract.

Answer 4

Keep your proof....you will win.

Answer 5

Ok, from what I understand, there was no rental agreement between you and the seller (occupants) so getting back any rental amount would be tough to get, unless you have a sympathetic judge, which are hard to come by.

They don't have an agreement from you about the oil one way or the other. If everything was verbal then they would have no proof there was an agreement for payment of the oil, meaning they can't prove that you owe it. I wouldn't even acknowledge any conversations about it. I would answer "I don't recall" when the question is brought up in court. A good argument to the judge would be that they can't prove how much oil you would owe, if any because they lived there for a month after closing. The judge wouldn't expect you to pay for the oil that they used.

I would sue them separately for the water bill. You can prove that they owed a balance before the closing date. There's not much defense they can give. You definitely aren't responsible for their water use before closing. However, any water they used after closing, without any type of rental agreement may fall on you to pay, unfortunately.

Answer 6

go to court and see what happens - worst case scenario - it's only $315- I think you would win-were you paying the mortgage while they lived there the extra month? - that's probably a lot more than $315 - sue them for that

Answer 7

Respond to the summons saying you dispute the claim.  The court will then file for a date aprox 45 days out.  The reason you do this is when the judge finds against your seller, the judge can then tack ALL the court fees to the seller and you walk away free.

Get hard copies of ALL the emails showing what has taken place.  I would go so far as to get both the realtors to write up what has taken place and get the letters notarized.  All this will be entered in as evidence.

Good luck.