Expert: Dick Dennis - 12/6/2007

Question
I am in the process of buying a bank owned property.  I have made my offer and they have accepted it.  The closing date was set for 11-28-2007.  On the 28th I called my attorney to make sure everything was still going as planned and that is when they told me that the Seller's attorney just informed them that they had not even started on the paperwork.  The Contract close date was to be no later that November 30th and here it is December 6th and still have no idea when a new close date is to be scheduled.  I have done everything on my part, my attorney is holding the money for the house.  We are just waiting on the Seller's Closing Attorney to do something.  I am going to give it a couple more days and then back out.  What financial reimbursements would I be intitled to.  Already I have invested a couple of thousands of dollars with inspections, appraisals, lawyer's fees, and misc. other items I had purchased for the house that I had a signed contract on.
Any help you can give me on this will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks

Answer
Chances are, John, that you will come out of this WITHOUT a house from THAT bank. If you have read the purchase agreement, chances are you bought that property as-is, where-is. That means they do no fixing and will not pay you back for any services you paid for. However, I cannot believe that the purchase agreement did not give the bank some kind of weasel clause allowing them to pull out of the deal should they not be able to abide by the closing date. What did your attorney say about that?

Since you have already spent "a couple thousand" on the property, they figure they have you on a kebab stick. In fact, the more you spend on it and the more you do not open your mouth to express dissatisfaction, the more you are going to have to wait. And wait. And wait. I do wish you well.

Dick Dennis             dixiedee13@aol.com