Nope. Even if you were on the loan, you couldn't take it legally since a furnace is considered a fixture or part of the house itself. Replacing a furnace is just considered standard home maintenance.

However, many homeowners that are facing foreclosure do (illegally) remove various bits and pieces that are considered fixtures. Not condoning or approving this practice - just acknowledging that it does happen. And all too frequently.

thank you.

Have you had the house appraised? Many times the bank will hire an appraiser that simply "copies" info from your tax rolls..this info is often outdated and not accurate. If you are interested in staying in the home, then I would get a real appraisal as a first step..then a lawyer to help deal with the bank.

Gardengal is correct...the furnace is part of the house. That being said...furnaces are sized and purchased according to the layout, square footage, and other variables for your house...Installing the wrong sized furnace can be a huge waste of energy,...(money..) and even a fire hazard if it's too small and has to work harder to heat the new space.

Sometimes we get caught up in the emotional part of things, when in fact it might be better to just walk away.

we are walking away because the house is in such disrepair and the bank thinks they know what its worth by outside pictures but the inside all the insultion has fallen down after 20 years , the roof is done the septic blew up the foundation is an old stone foundation and is collapsed in many places, we tried to tell them but they wouldn't work with us, that's the only reason I wanted to know about the furnace because we paid for most of it but thank you for answering.

You can sell it to an investor if the condition is what you describe . Your wife is the administrator of her mother's estate. Have her speak to an attorney to make sure she has the legal authority to sell it. It is very possible that even with the condition of the property, you can walk out with funds for the estate that would be disbursed accordingly. The house belongs to the estate right up until the foreclosure is finalized. As to the heater, answer #1 is right. Don't remove the heater, it is a fixture that stays with the house even if the bank forecloses.

thank you

just to clarify, we have a lawyer and tried every which way to work with the company, they have a balance of roughly 30k owed on it from my mother in law and that includes all the fees they tacked on and they approached our lawyer and wouldn't budge on a 7 yr loan that is all they would offer and that wouldn't leave any room for us to make the house livable, on top of that there is another 30k loan on the siding she had installed years ago so we would never be able to sell the house until that was satisfied and on top of that with all the rundown and unsafe issues we could never repair it properly while paying out 1k a month+ but if they had offered us a 20 year it would have been fine, to be clear there is no equity in this house or land, they are only going off of pictures from the road.

but yes we are walking away, I was only concerned with getting back some of my investment, you all have been very helpful.

You don't have to go through the same bank that is foreclosing to buy the house, you can go to any bank you want and get a 20 year loan, if that's what you want. Lawyer should have told you that.

If your mother in law has passed, you need to find out if the loan for the siding was a personal loan, or if she used the house as collateral. If it was a personal loan, and only in her name, then the loan dies with her...same as a charge card. As long as it was only in her name, and house wasn't used(as in home equity loan, or line of credit, etc)...then you or her daughter are not responsible for her debts.

" If it was a personal loan, and only in her name, then the loan dies with her...same as a charge card."

Not true. Like any other documented debt, personal loans/credit cards, etc. pass on to the estate, which is responsible for prioritizing and paying the bills. If the estate is insolvent - no assets - that's a different matter but these debts do not simply vanish in the face of the debtor's death.

You can negotiate the siding lien. If your attorney didn't bring that up I would say he isn't looking out for the estates' interest. Investors routinely buy properties that are in poor condition. I know it isn't always possible to finance the property if it is in poor condition that's why the investor niche works for these type of properties. There are even investors that will give you $X to move if you are still in the property. I just don't see letting the property go back to the bank for $30k. But then, I don't know your area. Are you sure there isn't any equity?

no equity and cant go to another lender because there was a land swap, we tried every which way to look at this and no there is no equity in this house.

Don't know why you would want to take out an 11 year old furnace. It's not worth $3000 today and probably near the end of it's life.

Even if you were on the loan, it would still be illegal to remove the HVAC.