Should I pay my real estate lawyer I had for my real estate sale?
April 23, 2010 by
Filed under condos for sale
Let me start by saying that the closing a sale or buying is a scam by the mortgage groups, realtors, and lawyers…
I had pircked a lawyer recommended by my real estate agent and agreed on $600. This was a condo sale, which was difficult to move in this market. Things happened very quickly, with the lawyer needing a waiver from the condo association regarding a 1st right of refusal on the sale, as it was an FHA loan. This was a pain, but we got it. The friday, 3 days before closing, I get a call from my lawyer that I need the association to change the condo bylaws to strike the 1st right of refusal PERMANENTLY. He said at some major additional cost we can get the process started…yea…
The point is if this lawyer had told me that we had to do this from day one, I would not have agrred to move forward with the FHA buyer. Now he wants to be paid. I told him that he should review what he did and what he should have known from the start and then give me a new number to pay him. He did not budge. I am considering sending him $200 and telling him he is lucky he is getting this for his knowledge of FHA loans.
Should I pay? am I really liable? Should he have known that upfront? by the way, when I found out that friday and googled the waiver issue….right away I knew it was a problems. I got a real estate broker, lawyer to handle things……..
I wouldn’t pay a dime. I’d warn him that if he pursues it any farther that you will file a complaint with the state license bar for malpractice.
First of all, the attorney has NO LEGAL AUTHORITY to require the association to strike ANYTHING from the bylaws for ONE homeowner, in fact, the HOA would have told him to go fly a kite.
So, my advice is to contact the bar association to file a complaint, because that IS A SCAM.
FHA has NO SUCH requirement.
Bylaws CANNOT be legally changed without the signature of the MAJORITY of the tenants and then need to be filed with the city and recorded….they are also under no obligation to do so…because they have a legal right to have that clause, and if a buyer cannot meet that requirement, then they can purchase other property.
Think about how ridiculous such a change request is…and a change request that I can guarantee never went through.
A real estate broker isn’t qualified to “Handle” a bylaw issue either.
So yes, you are being scammed, yes, you need to file complaints with the state.
Once he gets the letter from the bar association, your bill will go away.