Backstory:
In October 2015, we signed a contract to build a new house and put our house on the market. Sold our house and moved into a rental a few miles from where we were building the new house. House gets completed in mid May 2016 and we move in at the end of the month. We are officially out of the house on June 1 2016.
We have copies of text messages and emails from the owner saying our deposit check is in the mail. He apparently moved to San Diego (our rent checks were sent to a friend's house two blocks away from the rental) and it took him some time to get everything together and get our deposit in the mail. After the date the deposit check was supposed to arrive, we followed up with a phone call, text message, and email asking for confirmation the check was mailed because our new house is a brand new subdivision and mail service is still a little "iffy". We offered to pay the cost of sending the check via FedEx/UPS to ensure delivery. We got no response after the email saying our check would be in the mail.
As of August 30th, 2016, we still did not have the deposit check. My wife filed a small claims court case in early September. Through talking to the person we sent checks to and some research on the internet, we were able to figure out the owner's work address and had him served.
When my wife talked to the realtor who helped us lease the house, the realtor told her it looks like the house is about to go into foreclosure. (Not sure how the realtor determined this, but when you look at the house, it's obvious the owner just walked away and isn't doing anything with it. There are a number of pieces of mail that say on the envelope "don't go into foreclosure! We can help" kind of stuff.)
Question:
So, knowing that the house is most likely about to be foreclosed on and that we have a small claims case filed and the owner served, what do we need to do to get a lien put against the house so we can get our deposit back if the bank does foreclose and sell the house?
In October 2015, we signed a contract to build a new house and put our house on the market. Sold our house and moved into a rental a few miles from where we were building the new house. House gets completed in mid May 2016 and we move in at the end of the month. We are officially out of the house on June 1 2016.
We have copies of text messages and emails from the owner saying our deposit check is in the mail. He apparently moved to San Diego (our rent checks were sent to a friend's house two blocks away from the rental) and it took him some time to get everything together and get our deposit in the mail. After the date the deposit check was supposed to arrive, we followed up with a phone call, text message, and email asking for confirmation the check was mailed because our new house is a brand new subdivision and mail service is still a little "iffy". We offered to pay the cost of sending the check via FedEx/UPS to ensure delivery. We got no response after the email saying our check would be in the mail.
As of August 30th, 2016, we still did not have the deposit check. My wife filed a small claims court case in early September. Through talking to the person we sent checks to and some research on the internet, we were able to figure out the owner's work address and had him served.
When my wife talked to the realtor who helped us lease the house, the realtor told her it looks like the house is about to go into foreclosure. (Not sure how the realtor determined this, but when you look at the house, it's obvious the owner just walked away and isn't doing anything with it. There are a number of pieces of mail that say on the envelope "don't go into foreclosure! We can help" kind of stuff.)
Question:
So, knowing that the house is most likely about to be foreclosed on and that we have a small claims case filed and the owner served, what do we need to do to get a lien put against the house so we can get our deposit back if the bank does foreclose and sell the house?