When Tracie and Myles Albert secured their dream home in January of last year, they couldn’t believe their luck. The house was a great deal, and had been sold for a price much lower than what it was worth.
Since the couple were cash buyers and the seller wanted to make a quick deal, the beautiful four-bedroom house in Riverside, California went for $560,000.
But after the sale went through and all the forms were signed, the seller suddenly turned around and refused to move out of the house that’s no longer his.
“It’s just draining, emotionally and financially,” Tracie told FOX 11 Los Angeles.
The couple had pulled out all the stops to make sure they would secure their bargain house- even taking out a loan to cover the costs.
“It took us scrambling to get everything we had, our life savings put together and a hard money loan on top of it to make that happen,” Myles recalled.
But bizarrely, as soon as both parties had finalized the deal, the seller seemed to have a change of heart.
Unfortunately for Tracie and Myles, they had already paid the seller for his house- and now he was keeping hold of the keys. Each time they went round to their house, the man remained inside with the door locked, refusing to leave.
“We own the house, outright. That’s our house and it’s all in a contract, written, legal, done. He’s been paid the money in his account. How could we have no rights to go into our home?” asked Myles.
Apparently, the seller had initially done everything by the book- though he’d been clear about the fact that he needed a quick sale.
“He needed $560,000 from the sale of his house in two weeks and he called me on a Sunday, so in traditional real estate there’s no way of doing that unless the buyer’s a cash buyer,” says letting agent, Taylor.
In an attempt to get the seller evicted, both the couple and Taylor have contacted authorities- but the pandemic has put a stopper on any kind of evictions.
“It’s genuinely unfathomable to me that we live in a state where something like this is even possible. They closed escrow on this home January 31, 2020, Taylor said.”
It’s a very good point. Shouldn’t buyers have some kind of legal protection over this kind of thing?
Well apparently, new COVID laws have created a loophole- something that needs to be addressed urgently.
“They have this case under a COVID tenant situation, of no evictions when it doesn’t fall under that at all. This transaction went through in January 2020 before any of that, it isn’t a renter who was getting thrown out. It’s the guy who collected all of this money,” stated Myles.
Since there is nothing that Myles and Tracie can currently do about their situation, they’re hoping their story will act as a warning to others looking to buy during the pandemic.
Eviction Attorney Dennis Block says, “This year alone, we’ve handled at least 7 maybe 8 cases of this exact type of situation.”
“This person is not a tenant, it’s a previous owner who is enjoying the benefits of the money that was transferred to his account but of course doesn’t want to move out of the premises that he no longer owns.”
With no option but to let the seller continue to live in their house, the couple have been trying their best to keep their property in good condition.
But it’s not been easy.
Tracie says, “I tried watering the lawn one time and he came out and ripped my sprinkler lines, ripped all the wires. The Palm trees are dying, everything was beautiful and everything is dying.”
It’s unbelievable that something like this is happening and no one can do anything about it! We hope that the couple are able to move into their rightful home very soon.
Watch their story below.
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