Expert: Dick Dennis - 7/19/2006

Question
One more quick question.  This buyer is making a huge deal about the situation.  Is there anyway I am able to cancel selling the house, until I have this problem fixed?  She is only causing us more difficulty   (and she is trying to lower the house price even further now) and she is not easy to work with.  What is your advice on that?  Also, is she able to bring us to court for any of the reasons that I explained to you?  If she is, would it then be wise to go to an attorney?  My wife and I did not intend to cheat anyone out on a deal.  We remodeled the whole house, and she is pretty much getting a house with almost everything new/replaced/appliances and the whole works.  If anything, we are getting cheated out on this deal because she is getting this house for a great bargain price.  We just don’t want our hard work to go by cheaply.  The sewer situation was something we didn’t consider as well as we should have.  If there is anymore advice you have that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

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Followup To

Question -
Dear Dick,

My wife and I are having our house for sale, but we are running into a problem.  We are working with a real estate broker under dual compliance (where they serve us, the sellers, and the buyer equally).  Anyways, we have signed the purchase agreement, but now something came up unexpected.  A couple years back we had an inspection done on our sewer system because we had a few back clogs.  The person that was going to fix this kept putting us off, and we decided not to do it anymore (the estimate of the problem is at about $5,000).  After deciding not to get it fixed, we didn't have that problem any more.  If we ever had a clog we would just call in someone to unclog it for us which was very rare.  I am not sure if this problem has resolved itself by itself, but we weren’t having almost any problems at all after deciding not to follow through with fixing the inspection.  Now the problem is that we never mentioned that in our purchase agreement that we had this problem.  We just weren't thinking that that was something big enough that it would need mentioning and it was 4 years ago.  The buyer has found this information out now and wants the problem fixed or she might even bring things to court because it looks like she really wants this house.  Please, I need advice if I should spend money on an attorney or if I can just simply handle this case myself.  Am I able to cancel the purchase agreement now?  And if I do what consequences would I undergo?  What's the best route here?  By the way, I live in Minnesota (if that helps).  Thank you very much for your help.

Sincerely,

sm


Answer -
It doesn't matter who you sell the house to, you're still going to have to disclose what you know about that sewer situation. So, you may as well do it now when it costs less than later. First, however, it might be worthwhile to hire your own home inspector have him check that problem area. If it turns out that it is still a problem, then you might find someone who would do the work for less than that $5000 of four years ago.

You can consult with a local real estate attorney, but I would bet he/she would probably advise something similar to what I just offered. I wish you well.

Dick Dennis          dixiedee13@aol.com

Answer
When I come across those kind of people, I just tell them to go fly a kite. You signed a purchase agreement that says there are certain things wrong with the property. If you don't want to fix anything, it's up to you. You have merely chose to NOT do the work and if she doesn't want the house that way, then she can go find another one.

She is giving you the runaround. Give it back to her and see how she likes being treated the same way. Just tell your real estate agent that you don't want to sell the house to her. Period. There are contingencies in the purchase agreement, if the contingencies are not met, then then you have no purchase agreement.

To verify this, do talk with a local real estate attorney and express your feelings in this matter. I think it will be better to pay an attorney than to mess with this &%$)*@%^$ of a buyer. I am sure your attorney (make sure its a real estate attorney) will be able to find something through which you may get out of this.

Without me being there, I really do not know the complete story, nor do I know what the contract says as far as the buyer is concerned. That is why I suggest the attorney.

I do wish you well.

Dick Dennis          dixiedee13@aol.com