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#1
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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 |
#2
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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. |
#3
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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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