Jul 26, 2024
A San Francisco home that splashed onto the market for a surprising $488,000 in June has sold for its asking price — but intense drama appears to have unfolded behind the scenes.
“This thing is a family mess,” the seller, Todd Lee, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
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According to the Chronicle, Todd accepted an offer from his sister, Cheryl Lee, 66, who was originally renting the home with their mother, Sandra Lee, 83.
The property was apparently valued at $1.8 million — but the low price came with a key stipulation: the current tenants supposedly had occupancy rights for nearly 30 years.
Claims of 'deception' and 'betrayal'
Redfin, shows the property was sold on July 16.
The listing clearly stated the home was already occupied by tenants whose lease appears to grant them “possible occupancy rights until 2053” and “strong long-term rent rate amount restrictions.” The tenants pay $416.67 a month in rent, in addition to utilities.
Sandra’s parents originally purchased the property in the 1970s for $52,000 and lived there until they died. In a previous interview with The San Francisco Standard, Sandra claimed Todd and her brother, Cedric Goo, had taken advantage of her and her daughter and listed the home against her wishes.
Sandra also claimed that her stepfather (the original homeowner), Kenneth Goo, wrote her a lease in secret before he died — granting her long-term rent rate restrictions until 2053.
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“If it wasn’t for the lease that [my son] didn’t know about that was made in 2018, I don’t know where we’d be,” she said. “It’s unfathomable, the deception, the betrayal — this is my son doing this to me.”
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A financial fiasco
Todd denied his mother’s allegations and said he agreed to the sale to avoid litigation despite getting higher offers from other buyers, reports the Chronicle.
“I wanted to keep it private,” he said. “When my mother spoke out, it got exponentially worse.”
Todd says Kenneth named him trustee of the family trusts, which include the home, and Cheryl, Sandra and Cedric are the beneficiaries. While Sandra and Cedric are entitled to 37.5% each, Cheryl gets the remaining 25%.
Per the Chronicle, Kenneth first signed a lease on the property in 2019 that ran through March 31, 2049, and required the tenant to pay property taxes and insurance as rent for the term of the contract, allowing “tenant’s immediate and extended family” use of the premises.
Robert Roddick, the family trusts’ lawyer, says he helped write the first lease and the named tenant is Cheryl.
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Two years later, Kenneth amended the lease, curbing the tenant’s annual property tax and insurance payment to just $5,000 a year — or $416.67 a month — and extending it until Dec. 31, 2053.
Kenneth’s death triggered a reassessment of the home. The value surged from $143,152 to $1,428,000, with the property taxes on the home rising from $1,717 to a staggering $16,928 a year, the Chronicle reports, citing government records.
Roddick told the Chronicle a broker valued the house at $1.8 million, without the tenants in place, but he claims the tenants “won’t cooperate and move [out] to get the maximum price for the home.”
He says if the property sold for $1.8 million, Sandra and Cheryl would be entitled to about $1.1 million for their shares combined, while Cedric would get around $700,000 (excluding any expenses and debts that may be owed to the family trust).
However, if Sandra and Cheryl bought the house for $500,000, Sandra’s and Cheryl’s total shares from the sale would be around $300,000, while Cedric’s portion would come to $200,000. That said, this means the mother and daughter would own a home potentially worth $1.8 million.
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Serah Louis is a reporter with Moneywise.com. She enjoys tackling topical personal finance issues for young people and women and covering the latest in financial news.
