"Once I had a dream

that worried me, like a drunken guillotine;

lingering,

just above

my head."

From "Novim's Nightmare" by Yusuf Islam, back in the days when he still used the name Cat Stevens.

We've learned a few more details over the past couple of days but we have many, many questions remaining. Mostly concerning what will happen if our guillotine falls. This is all very confusing for Charles and I, but I'll try to explain what I can. If you haven't read my posts earlier this month about the sheriff sale, you need to backtrack to them in order for the following to make sense.

Unknown to us, Mr. Attorney had not been hired by the bank that foreclosed on the Einsel House. This bank (of course it's a giant nationwide chain bank) had hired a Great Big Bloated law firm (hereinafter known as The GBB Firm) which has Ohio offices in Cleveland and Cincinnati. The attorney who prepared and signed all the paperwork for the foreclosure works out of the Cleveland office. When it came time for the sheriff sale he didn't want to leave his nice air conditioned lake-front office, so he had The GBB Firm hire Mr. Attorney to attend the sale for him. The "Sheriff's Sale" posts on this blog explain what happened next.

We learned yesterday that after the sale Mr. Attorney returned to his office and called The GBB Firm to explain what had happened. Apparently, The GBB Firm told Mr. Attorney not to worry, that it was okay and they would work it out. The GBB Firm continued as though everything was hunky-dory. Paperwork was filed on time and no alarm bells were rung. The GBB Firm prepared the Order for Confirmation of Sale as would be expected and forwarded it to the local court. The local judge signed it on Thursday, September 16.

Then, on Friday, September 17, The GBB Firm called Mr. Attorney and demanded money.

Remember that The GBB Firm promised its client (the bank) to get a certain price on the property. Because Mr. Attorney flubbed up on his part of the job, we bought the house for less than that price. And last Friday, The GBB Firm told Mr. Attorney they wanted him to pony up the difference. Well, Mr. Attorney carries insurance for just this sort of thing, so he calls up his insurance company (another great big bloated company, this time one that specializes in providing errors & omissions insurance to law firms). His insurance company hears the details and decides that they will not cover this claim because Mr. Attorney has not attempted to contest the sale. After all, if Mr. Attorney can get the sale reversed it won't cost his insurance company a dime.

This all occurred on Friday, September 17th. Just after lunch on Monday, September 20th, a junior partner in Mr. Attorney's firm called up our attorney to offer us money if we would agree to forfeit our bid. If we didn't take the offer, he threatened to contest the sale. So far, that's where things remain. Officially, we've not yet turned down the offer. (We're "buying time" here, folks.)

At this point, there appear to be three possible outcomes:
1 - the threat is just that; a threat (if you want to pray, this is the one to pray for);
2 - he files a motion contesting the sale before closing; or
3 - he files a motion contesting the sale after closing.

Even if #2 or #3 occurs, the our attorneys assure us that the odds of the sale being reversed are slim. They have researched case history and it clearly supports our position. So in the end we are not that concerned about losing the Einsel House. The main difficulties have to do with time and money. And lack of sleep. I'll elaborate on the "time and money" stuff later, and close this post with the following true story: After finally falling sleep on Monday night, I woke up in the wee smalls in an empty room. I looked at the alarm clock and saw 2:58. I headed to the kitchen where I found the light already on, my mom busy emptying the dishwasher, and my husband snacking on a cup of yogurt. "Couldn't sleep?" my mom asked with a smile. I nodded and Charles replied, "Join the crowd."

Continued...