What's My Case Worth? (Mortgages!)

$6,000 & a couple of letters for breach of contract to assume mortgages.

I'm not sure where this transaction falls on the scale of real estate deals.

That scale stretches from "Absolutely typical with no problems" on one end to "What, exactly, did you think you were doing, here?" on the other, and it's that end, the What, exactly end that keeps lawyers in business and home-sellers in court and (presumably) not sleeping at night.

In Skog v. Larson, St. Croix (WI) County case number 04 CV 98, Eric and Traci Skog sued a real estate agent, Angela Larson, and her company Mana Investments, for misrepresentation and other claimed problems. The suit arose out of Larson's agreement to buy the Skog's property and "assume the payments on the two mortgages encumbering the property."

It's not clear, from the report, what that meant -- whether Larson was going to refinance the mortgages into her name, or simply PAY the mortgages but leave them in the Skogs' name.

As might be expected (given that I'm writing about this), Larson missed payments and the Skogs, upset, sued for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and various misrepresentations.

The case then settled very quickly. Larson and her company appear to have not even answered the complaint, but did agree that Larson would sign letters written on her letterhead claiming responsibility for the default in payments on the mortgages in the Skogs' name, to pay $6,000 to a mortgage holder for a release of lien, and to sell the property.

As I said, it's not clear what this transaction was supposed to be, and that's part of the problem. If you're doing something unusual, unusual things can result from it.