On Tue, 26 Aug 2014 07:57:44 +0200, nestork
wrote:


micky;3276284 Wrote:

But as I started typing here, a better way came to mind. They put a
lien on the house which has to be** paid before it can be sold. And
part of the contract is the owner agreeing to the lien. Probably
without using the word lien.


I don't think the realtor can put a lien on a property unless the
property owner OWES the realtor money, and in this case, I don't believe
that deal would create any indebtedness on the part of the home owner.

There is something else called a "caveat" that attaches to the property
very much like a lien. A caveat is like a clause that get grandfathered

Aren't you in Canada? I looked for this and found a good hit from New
South Wales. I'm trying to figure out if I know what this would be
called in the US, and I can't think of anything, but I asked somewhere
else.


in if there's any change in ownership of a property. For example, a
father might sell an apartment block to his son with the caveat that the
father may live in one of the apartments rent-free for the rest of his
life. In that case, it doesn't matter if the son sells the building to
anyone else, that third party has to honour that caveat and allow dad to
live rent free in one of the apartments.

Similarily, if the son gets killed in a car accident, and ownership of
the apartment block passes to the grandson, then the grandson has to
honour that caveat by letting gramps live rent free in one apartment.

Caveats can be as bizarre as you can imagine and aren't set up primarily
to extract money from the homeowner like liens are.

I expect that in your friend's case, the realtor is putting a caveat on
people's property saying that they can't sell it unless that realtor
handles the sale and gets the commission. And, that would be a valid
caveat.