Home Ownership (misc.consumers.house)

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jj
 
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Default My rights as a seller

Allow me to list a series of events and then ask a question which I am
sure the very wise people in this group can help me with.

This is a vacant house in Ohio - it has been vacant since September.
It has had daily visits and maintenance since being vacant. I have
had a contractor in doing several small job. AC and Heating have been
run when necessary.

- House listed 10/18
- Offer received (countered) and then accepted 10/19
- Buyers agreement signed and exchanged 10/20 by both parties
- Earnest money deposited with agents (only 1000 - purchase price
265000)
- House inspection 10/21 (FAST)
- House inspection report and list of requests and inquires received
10/25

All good so far.

The inspection was comprehensive but very inaccurate on many points.

The major points to note:

- Drains not working
- Well not working
- Electric panel needs replaceing.

The drains, they were serviced (jetted - camera) in July of this
year by Roto Rooter and repairs made to 1 drain.

Well not working - Inspected, serviced and new pressure tank
installed also in July of this year.

Electric Panel need replacing..... This is the first hint - this
was not mentioned in the inspection as an issue!

It turns out the buyer is a electrition (hence the panel!) - the
inspector was his boss and the drain inspector was a good friend. I
raised this obvious potential conflict of interest to my agent and she
was shocked to discover the relationship.

We replyed to the requests and inquires fully and honestly in a
several page document. We referenced the receipts and gave copies for
the well and drainage work completed earlier in the year. We said
that we would not be addressing any of these items - a couple of other
items on the request we said would address.

That was sent 10/26 and in the hands of the buyers agent 10/27 early
AM.

I next had contact with my agent on Friday (10/29) morning asked if
they had reached a decision. She told me the buyers were at the house
with Roto Rooter to get an estimate for the repairs. I was annoyed
because I was not told this was happened and we explained to the
buyers that in our opinion repairs were not warrented. She told me
she would get back to me later that day or tomorrow (sat) to give me
progress. She did not.

I called her last night so I can get an update and she told me the
well contractor did not show up yesterday and would be at the house on
Monday.
I again was annoyed that this occurred and it is still my position
that the buyer can have all the contractors in the house they want -
when they take posession.

After a lengthy, sometimes heated conversation with my agent she
agrees that the buyers agent and the buyers have been less than
cooprative.

I then went over the buyers agreement and highlighted the timeframe
clause to her. The buyer has 3 calander days from the inspection
results and sellers response to either agree, disagree or ask for more
time.

I did not receive *any* notification from them.

I informed my agent this morning that I now consider the buyers
agreement binding and they have accepted my inspection response by not
answering. The 3 days is up and I expect the deal to close in 2
weeks, as per agreement.

--------

I do not care if these buyers squeal and squirm - they tried to
hoodwink me will inspection collusion and because of thier tardiness
they are contractually bound to purchase my house.

Is this accurate? - can I compel them to purchase?

Regards,
Tim
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Jonathan Kamens
 
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Default

First of all, you should be asking these questions to a
lawyer, not to a Usenet newsgroup. You *do* have a lawyer
representing you in this sale, right? If not, get one.

Unless the most recent signed agreement between you and the
buyers says "time is of the essence," a "magic" legal phrase
which forces the times specified in the agreement to be more
binding than they otherwise would be, you probably can't
compell the buyers to purchase within the timeframe specified
in the agreement as long as they are continuing to actively
pursue the purchase (as they clearly are, given the level of
activity).

Your agreement with them probably says that their offer to
purchase the house is dependent on acceptable results of a
home inspection. *They*, not you, get to decide what
"acceptable" means in that context. That means that if they
believe as a result of the inspection that some repairs need
to be made, and you disagree, they are free to decide that the
results of the inspection are unacceptable and walk away from
the deal. Whether they get back their earnest money if they
do that depends on what the signed agreement says.

It's possible that they tried to trump up the problems to get
something from nothing from you. It's unlikely that
you'd ever be able to prove this or that it would be
worth trying.

It's also possible that the work you had done recently that
they claimed needs to be redone really does need to be redone,
or that it wasn't done fully or properly the first time.

There's little point in getting bent out of shape about this.
They told you what they believe needs to be done, and you
disagreed, and you told them so. They were within their
rights to tell you what they believe needs to be done, and you
within your rights to disagree. Now they get to decide
whether to purchase the house, given that you're not going to
make the repairs they requested, or not. If they decide not,
then you should move on with your life and find another buyer.
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v
 
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Default

On 1 Nov 2004 06:32:03 -0800, someone wrote:

I informed my agent this morning that I now consider the buyers
agreement binding and they have accepted my inspection response by not
answering. The 3 days is up and I expect the deal to close in 2
weeks, as per agreement.
cut
Is this accurate? - can I compel them to purchase?

Fat chance of that. Maybe you'll get the thousand. Do you want to
sell them the house or not? You say there is not a problem, they say
there is. OF COURSE they need a contractor to come take a look at it,
to see if there really is a problem and how much it would cost to fix
it.

And you can continue to state that there is no problem that you will
fix, so the deal is off. Happens all the time. Find someone else to
buy your vacant house.

But you really do need to be asking your lawyer, in that state where
the house is, about this. Not us.

BTW, sounds to me like they never "accepted" your response. If they
had, why would they still be getting contractors in to look at what
they still think are problems? Sounds like they were DIS-satisfied,
found your response UN-acceptable, and that they certainly did tell
you.

-v.
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