I Have A Legal Question And Need Help Bad!!!!!!!!
I had a house for sale by owner a year ago. A lady came by and looked at it. She loved it. She wanted me to take down the sign and take it off the market right away. She was wanting to give me her diamond rings off her hands until she could come back tomorrow with some money. She came back the next day with 6000 dollars. she said she is going through a devorce and wanted to know if we could wait a month to close on it. and in a month if the devorce wasnt done she would give me another 6000 dollars to wait another month. I took the 6000 dollars and said ok. We didnt sign any papers. Well a month went by and the divorce wasn't done and she didn't have the other 6000. I told her it was ok and I would wait till divorce was done. In the meantime she started moving some of her stuff. So I took the 6000 and bought another house.
Well six months went by of the divorce not finaling. She writes me a letter and told me the divorce is more expensive than she thought and was going to take longer than she thought. She said she wants her 6000 dollars back. She said she would wait till I sold the house before I would have to give it to her. Well I just ignored the letter. I put my house up with a realtor and six months went by and my house hasn't sold. I just got a letter today from this lady saying if I don't pay her she is going to take me to small claims court.. Do I owe her anything and what should I do?
josh
The first thing you need to do is consult an attorney.
In PA, all contracts relating to real estate must be in writing to be enforceable. My gut feeling is you should part with the $6K. But speak with an attorney.
with nothing in writing does she even have a case?
and this money she gave me is a down payment i didnt think down payments were reimbursable
With nothing in writing, there's a big question as to how you were entitled to have the $6K in the first place, let alone entitlement to keep it now.
Nancy is correct, you need to immediately consult a local attorney.
I also agree that you probably do not have any right to keep the money. The moral here would be to always, always, get everything in writing and every detail explained in full.
For anyone that wants to sell their property outright in a conventional sell, this here is one of many reasons to list your property with a reputable local real estate agent. This problem is just one of many that listing the property would solve.
Roger
PS
I am not a real estate agent.
If she actually stayed in the house or stored some of here belongings in the house for 6 months, check with an atty. to see that if she actually sued you in small claims court, could you countersue for 6 months rent or storage fee.
actually she bought all my furniture. and it is still there so its been a year she had her stuff there.
Josh, You can slice and dice this many ways. I would start by negotiating w/ the buyer. Whether she likes it or not she created tenancy by keeping stuff there. In Oregon we call it a "tenant in sufference" meaning she is there w/ out a rental agreement. She tied up your property for six months and stored her stuff there I think there is room to negotiatie perticularly if you can be as so kind as to serve her with this information prior to small claims. Start negotiating and be prepared to cut a check. I dont think it needs to be all $6k that doesnt really seem fair to either party involved.
what do you think the outome in court would be if you had to make a guess
isnt ernest money only returned if their is problems getting financing not divorce and selling their own house
Well, Josh, as you've set it forth here this is a very confusing situation. But I suspect the actual situation is less confusing.
1) what did the lady think the $6,000 was for? Was it option money? An earnest money deposit on a sales contract? Rent for the house?
2) Did the woman every actually occupy the house personally? You say she moved some stuff (I assume you mean she moved it into the house). You also say she bought your furniture-- did she pay you for it or did you just reach an agreement that it would be included with the sale of the house?
3) You say you agreed to extend what ever your agreement was " till divorce was done." What did you think the agreement was at that time? What if the woman had reconciled with her husband and the divorced was dismissed along with her need for the house? What if finalizing the divorce had taken a couple of years?
I suspect, that unless somebody has a more coherent story about what the deal was here than you've given us the Judge is going to rule that there was never a meeting of the minds and therefore no contract and therefore give her money back.
For what it's worth, but isn't the limit in small claims court $5000?
Quote:
On 2004-08-10 11:44, aurera wrote:
For what it's worth, but isn't the limit in small claims court $5000?
aurera,
I think the dollar jurisdictional limit is set by state statute, so that can vary from state to state.
Nancy
Quite honestly, there is no contract if your state only recognizes a written contract for the sale of real estate. This means, if she gave you money, it must have been for something else as she will be unable to collect due to a failed real estate sales agreement.
I would take the position that she bought the furnishings for six thousand dollars and you agreed to store them for some period of time. Now that the time has elapsed, she has a choice between removing her property or renewing he storage agreement. I would send her a registered letter to that effect, also explaining that if arrangements have not been made by a certain date that, you will be forced to dispose of her furnishings.
If your state requires all real estate sales contracts to be in writing, I don't think she has a leg to stand on.
GeneralSnafu,
If you check josh's initial post, you will see that he said she gave him the money because she wanted to buy the house and that he currently has his property up for sale.
I don't think josh helps his situation if he starts claiming something which apparently is not true--ie, that the $6K was a fee for storing some of her belongings. And if this winds up in court, he flirts with committing perjury.