Posted by Frank Chin on October 17, 2009 at 06:49:04:
In Reply to: pit bull attacked my broker showing me house posted by cork horner on October 14, 2009 at 14:54:45:
Interesting thread. Sorry to hear about your partner, and this issue with foreclosed homes, and the bank's liability had always intrigued me.First, the home I live in now was a property bought from a bank at a public auction some years back after the builder went bankrupt. What I noticed in the paperwork, deeding the property to me, was the bank NEVER at any time held title to the property, for the entire period the property was in foreclosure.
It was deeded to the bankruptcy trustee, then to the bank, then to me, dated the day of the closing. The language on the deed too was intriguing. Normally, there's a chain of title, Grantor to Grantee through a series of deeds. Mine read the bank is deeding me the property from the bankruptcy trustee, whose deed "will be recorded".
I wondered for "what period of time" the bank ever held title?? A milisecond??
I was intrigued by this because the house two doors down was also foreclosed, not sold till six months after I purchased mine, and those six months went through a brutal winter. Yet, snow and ice was never cleaned up, I myself had slipped and fallen there, as had many others, and I never thought of going after the bank. I was thinking to myself, they're probably clever enough not to hold title to the place anyway.
The best bet is to sue the dog owner, if he's smart enough to have homeowners insurance not excluding "pit bulls" which some policies have nowadays.
As to the house in the homeowner name that someone raised. They could deed it to some LLC all they want, but in this case, the dogowner himself would be sued in any case. Then, if there is a judgment the dogowner, with that, you go after the owner's assets, including the LLC. An LLC would not help here.
In fact, deeding the place to the LLC may in itself raise more insurance issues. If the home is in the homeowners name, chances are homeowner policy may cover the dogbite, unless pitbulls are excluded. If the insurance was through an LLC, as the LLC is not the dogowner, I fail to see how the LLC liability insurance would cover it.
The advantage of owning your own home in your own name includes the use homestead exemptions in many states as well.
Frank Chin
- Re: pit bull attacked my broker showing me house cork horner 17:08:19 10/17/09 (1)
- Re: pit bull attacked my broker showing me house anonymous 14:26:52 02/03/10 (0)