You're correct that the seller never informed us of the contract, even though he was required to. Our state has a standard form that buyers fill out, indicatin

You're correct that the seller never informed us of the contract, even though he was required to. Our state has a standard form that buyers fill out, indicating whether there are any encumbrances, liens, etc. that the seller needs to be aware of. What the seller SHOULD have done is informed us that the contract would have to be transferred to us as part of the home sale, and we would have factored that into our offer. But because they failed to inform us, they ended up selling the same property to two different parties. And you're also correct that we were never a party to the contract, and that's basically what our lawyer spelled out in our demand letter. He basically said that this was a breach of contract between the previous owner and the organization (the two parties to the contract), and they needed to handle it themselves and leave us out of it. Eventually, after a lot of back-and-forth, the organization agreed to not pursue this any further with us and nullify the lien. They had the option to pursue the previous owner for breach of contract, which would likely have involved him returning the money, but I don't know if they actually did so or chalked it up as a loss.