Invalid land contract
Property manager signed land contract with the tenant on behalf of his company and not the owner of the house.
Tenant put $3,000 down and paid for 1 month, paid $900.
Tenant wants to get all money back ($3,900) and filed a law suit
Do I have to return money? That was an error on property management site? What are my rights as a property owner in this case?
Re: Invalid land contract
Where is the property? If its in Michigan, I can’t help you as I am licensed in California. If the property, and the property management company is in California, I can assist you, but I would suggest that you post some additional details.
As a general rule, and again, this is in California only, the property manager is going to be a licensed real estate agent. That person has a much greater duty to you as their client than a non-licensed person might. As such, there is little question that you should be able to recover any and all expenses from the property manager.
With respect to the suit, if they have sued the property owner, the property owner can probably defend the lawsuit on the basis that he never authorized the contract, never received the money, and that the person who is liable is the property management company who defrauded the tenant. That being said, the property owner will still have to defend the lawsuit, will probably have to file a complaint against the property manager. I would suggest that a complaint be filed with the California Department of Real Estate regarding this transaction – desperate times are causing licensed persons to do stupid things, and they need to be punished, plus I believe there is a recovery fund at the State of California for activity by a licensed real estate agent which harms a consumer.
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David Gibbs
The Gibbs Law Firm, APC
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