Expert: Hans Weber, Licensed Broker Associate - 8/1/2006

Question
Dear Mr. Weber,
We are in the process of buying a home in Nassau County, Long Island New York. We made an offer on the house in the beginning of May, it was accepted and we signed the contract at the end of May. The on or about close date was July 5, 2006. There was mold in the basement and the chimney was coming away from the house so they agreed to give us $7,500 back at closing if we could close as soon as possible. When we got the contract that is when we first found out it was an estate sale. This was never disclosed to us use by either real estate agent. We got our mortgage and were ready to close on June 30th and on June 29th we found out that they could not close because they did not get the probate paperwork back. No one ever disclosed that they did not have the probate papers. Did they legally have the right to sell the house? Now our mortgage rate expired on July 21st and as of today, August 2nd they still do not have the probate papers back yet. Can we re-negotiate the contract for more money back at closing to buy a point and bring our mortgage back to where it was? What rights do we have at this point?

Thank you for your help and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best Regards,
Michelle Tonzi

Answer
Hi Michelle,

Thank you for your question.

Once you are 30 days beyond the closing date I believe your lawyer can request your escrow deposit back and cancel the contracts for failure to perform.  At that point the seller may ask you to stay in contract and then you can request additional concessions.

The probate papers were probably not processed in a timely manner by the estate lawyer. This may not have been relayed to the real estate agents.

If you like the house it is worth the wait. But with rising interest rates it is going to cost you more money unless the seller helps you out.  They probably will.

Good luck.

Hans