Legal Question
We saw a vacant house that needed some work. The owner died and an attorney is in charge. We made an offer contingent on home inspection within 10 days, which was accepted. But when our realtor and we went there with a home inspector, the basement was locked, so we could not inspect the heating and plumbing; water and power were not turned on. Our realtor called the seller's realtor. He showed up without the keys to the basement and refused to turn the water and power on. He said the house was being sold AS IS. We told him the offer was contingent on inspection and if we could not inspect it, we would back out. He said he didn't care because he had other buyers with offers as good as or better than ours. He accepted our offer only because we were willing to make a bigger down payment. We had to pay the home inspector any way.
Now the seller's attorney is saying we are in breach of contract. Only he could say NO to our request to turn the power and water. He is willing to do that now. Can I still back out and get my deposit back or should I take his offer and re-inspect? I am asking 2 questions, one legal and one business.
I wouldn't really worry about seller suing you or any other non-buyer for non-performance.
Very rare for a J against a runaway buyer, whereas runaway sellers are nailed constantly.
Difference is all properties are unique, but where one non-performing buyer came from, there are others out there.
Moral? If seller isn't totally cooperative, get outa there!
Well.... Not being an attorney, I cannot speak authortitatively to your legal question of whether or not you can still back out and get your deposit. Although it does sound like the seller's actions (or lack of action in this case) prevented you from being able to complete the home inspection. There seems to be a question of agency here (i.e., who could and could not say "no"
. I would definitely talk to an attorney.
The business question of whether you or not you should continue with the deal is dependent upon deal and the trustworthiness of the seller. Only you can answer this question.
You may have just run up against a bad agent.[ Edited by Rogue on Date 12/08/2003 ]
The answer is based on wether you want the property or not. I assume that you made the offer because you want the house. If that's the case, then get the inspection and go from there.
If for some reason you don't want the house (don't know why), then you have the inspection report which should indicate that the it was not possible to examine the systems in the basement and the ulilies were not turned on.
Based on that inspection report, you can reject the property and cancel the sale..
I just talked to my attorney. He will talk to the other attorney and get back to me. He asked what I wanted to do. My first instinct was to walk away if I could.
The other agent is unprofessional and nasty. He left a couple of obnoxious messages on my realtor's voicemail earlier. He is not trustworthy at all; or do you mean the attorney is the seller?
My feelings are all that talk of other buyers lining up is hot air.
Yes. I meant the attorney is the seller. It would not surprise me if the other agent was full of air. It certainly sounded like it to me.
If there were other buyers with better offers as the agent indicated, the seller (attorney) probably would not wast time with pursuing a breach of contact action against you.[ Edited by Rogue on Date 12/08/2003 ]
One additional thought...if the property's in a state that requires sellers to give signed disclosure statements to buyers and you weren't given one, get it. This may give you some leverage with the folks on the other side. If the law says the buyer is entitled to the disclosure statement (unless the particular seller falls within some exception to that), it doesn't make any difference if the house is being sold as is where is. The seller still has to disclose.
On future deals, here's a suggestion. Put right in the agreement that seller will have all utilities turned on for your inspection and that your inspector shall have access to to all parts of the property.
I received a disclosure. We made an offer contingent on the house passing inspection. It did not because the inspector could not inspect.
I received the letter from the other attorney. It says his realtor advised him that he made efforts to perform the inspection. If he did, he would open the basement where all heating and plumbing units are and turn the water and power on and won't brag he didn't need me.
I hope I learnt something. I will pay more attention to disclosure and contingencies.
Thanks everyone.
Ummmm,
What difference does it make whether you were allowed to access all areas of the house?
If you have a contract that is subject to inspection that is a traditional contingency clause that will allow any buyer to get out of his contract no matter what the other realtor did or didn't do.
Let's say he let you inspect everything you wanted to, do you think that at that point you still couldn't back out?
Unless your contract or state is different them mine, the "subject to inspection clause" allows me to get out of any purchase because it is subject to my subjective opinion of what I find when I have the house inspected.
Even if he lets you back in and you inspect it you can just say, "Nope, I found some stuff I wasn't expecting see YA!"[ Edited by The-Rehabinator on Date 12/09/2003 ]