On March 11, Douglas Garhartt and Brandon Lively closed on a three bedroom condo in San Clemente that they'd bought in a short sale for $365,000. On March 15, investment group Saint John Trust bought a three bedroom condo in San Clemente at auction, paying $346,896. You can see where this is going. With so many houses in foreclosure, there're bound to be a few tiny mistakes, like in the case of the Long Beach couple whose bank sold their house after telling them they wouldn't lose it. Or a bank selling a condo someone else just bought. Shortly after moving in, Garhartt and Lively began hearing about people coming by to look into changing the locks and started receiving eviction notices. Now all parties are in court, and the bank--previously IndyMac, now OneWest--is blaming the escrow company, and vice versa. Garhartt and Lively at least have title insurance, and a grant deed issued on March 11. Saint John Trust has a trustee's deed issued on March 26, but a rep tells the OC Register, "We had no clue there was a sale. We checked and there was no sale at that time...We wouldn’t have touched it with a 10-foot pole."
· Their home was sold by mistake [OC Register]
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