Q: Wells Fargo advertised house in TN on Auction.com. I won bid but quitclaimed empty lot, not house. Need help now.
Didn’t realize discrepancy until 3 months after winning bid and paying for major repairs on house. Went to county assessors site and saw parcel deeded to me was empty lot. Called Co Assessor who emailed quitclaim from bank. All prior owners always owned both parcels & both parcels shared same address. Past owner took out loan in Feb 2008 on empty lot to pay cash Mar 2008 on parcel with house. He filed bankruptcy 2017; Wells Fargo foreclosed on the empty lot, not parcel with house sold on Auction.com advertised as clear title that I purchased. Clear title actually is to previous owner because he paid cash. He stopped by to mow “his” property, told my contractor he knew house also crosses both parcel lines. I’ve been trying to get Wells Fargo to fix this mess and given them until October 1 2018 to do so. If they do not, I need experienced lawyer to sue bank AND auction.com for not verifying bank owned title to property advertised. Previous owner still on title to MY house now!
A: You knew that there were problems with that kind of property to start with, so why did you not hire an attorney to do a title search? Well you have to search both titles now in order to prepare for suit. Did you sign a Contract of Sale? The website probably has no liability. Each and every detail of your communications with a Bank representative needs to be set out now. A Fraud Suit in Federal Court may be in order and may be your only remedy, but then you may have misread site. Suing a Bank is extremely difficult. It probably should be filed in Circuit Court first, but will probably be removed to Federal Court.
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