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Sale of 1 property to 2 different parties.?

What can I do? I bought a for sale by owner. The owner previous to him sold the land to him and another person. Now I want to refinance the property because I put a house on it and the other owner wants me to pay him. I didnt have anything to do with the other seller making money on the property twice. What can I do. I need to refi this house now. Can I sue the person who sold it to that other person? He cant afford to take the seller to court so he wants me to pay him so that he will sign off on the property. I dont want to pay him (of course) but I need to settle this now. Is there any way to pay this guy and have something in writing stating that we can take the seller to court who sold it twice? No I did not get title insurance. I know now that I should have. I dont have time to deal with an attorney at this moment. Is there any way to pay the other owner some money to sign off with an express clause stating that in the future I or we together will go after this guy in court? By in the future I mean in a couple months, after I am done with the refi. Is a document of that nature one that can hold up in court in order to get the money back that I am willing to pay this guy now just to sign off? He wants to take the guy to court but cannot afford to do so. If I help him, by aggreeing to be a party in the lawsuit against the person who committed the fraud I stand a chance at getting that money back right?? Anyone know of any california cases of this nature that I can look at for reference?

Public Comments

1. When you purchased the land, you may have purchased title insurance (many states require it). This is exactly why title insurance is important. Contact the title insurance company and ask how to proceed. Failing that, you might be able (depending on how long you have lived there) to have the title asserted as being in your name only through the legal concept of adverse possession. EDIT: If you're asking if you can "buy the other person off", then the answer is probably yet. But do NOT do it without an attorney. In fact, don't do anything else related to this until you retain an attorney,.
2. You can't afford to do anything unless you see an attorney, what you have here is fraud, but you will just end up paying more and more unless you stop. By the way, there are companies who research the title to property before you purchase it to let you know if your seller owns the property, called "Title companies" for a small fee they make sure you don't get ripped off. Better luck next time.
3. Did you purchase title insurance at the time you purchased the property? Did you have an attorney when you purchased the property? If the answer to either is "yes," you may have a remedy. If the answer to both is "no," you have a big problem that only a lawyer can answer or help you with.