Expert: Hans Weber, Licensed Broker Associate - 10/15/2007

Question
QUESTION: hi,  my husband and i put our coop for sale on may 23 2006 we explained to the buyer before actually signing the contract that we were leaving the country and needed to get this done as quickly as possiblel, They assured us there would be no problem . we signed a contract that the closing would take place 90 days from then. The time came and went and nothing, we didnt hear a word from the coop board and teh buyers kept stringing us along saying this was almost a done deal (we werent able to leave the country because of this and that is a whole other story to financial hardship that we suffered ) now we were told the closing would take place in around nov and even that came and went with nothing. by jan we contacted our attorney and let him know that we wanted out of this contract since is definitly had gone beyond the 90 days agreed upon. he said he would take care of it , we didnt hear from him till april when we called him again and told him our request , again he assured us he would take care of it. in may i personally went to the buyers and let them know that we didnt want to go through with this and wanted to return their escrow money.they said they understood. but once again nothing, by june , or july we were contacted by our attorney that the coop had lost all our paperwork, we couldnt understand what  was going on , now on sept 19 when  our attorney finally notified the buyers attorney of our intention to end the contract , they said they were just interviewed by the board and were planning on going through with the contract anyhow. I dont understand how they have a right to do this a year later when the contract specifically stated 90 days and now its a year later. this was not an open contract to go through whenever this was very specific, do we have the right to back out ? THANKS I REALLY HOPE YOU CAN HELP WITH SOME ADVICE

ANSWER: Dear Golds,

This is an incredible situation.

This whole process is guided by the contract.  You contract with the buyer should have some dates in it that they must complete certain contingencies within.  Like getting the mortgage, getting board approval.  Your lawyer sounds like the one who dropped the ball here, probably not notifying the buyers that they were in default and you as sellers wanted to terminate the contract.  Since no notice was given they presumed they could continue with the process of buying.

You may be best served speaking to another real estate lawyer in your area to find out if you can cancel the sale.  However. prices are lower now than a year ago so it might even pay for you to sell and buy another unit for less money!

Good luck,

Hans

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks so much for your advice, sorry for not emailing you before we have been so busy with figuring out what to do . the problem here is that our buyers during this period we believe now did not have the money to afford to buy the apartment for we found out that they were on public assistence at the time and would have been in fraud in the event that the public assistence would find out they had money to buy this co-0p.  my lawyer sent them out a letter saying they were in breech of the contract and that we were going to notify the courts that they did not have the money available since they were on public assistence at this time. we want to go ahead with a lawsuit and we are worried that our attorney doesnt know what to do , what do you think? do we have a chance going after them to prove they were in breech since they didnt seem to have this money to buy the co-0p being on public assistence, when he mentioned this to their attorney , they freaked out and were yelling at my husband that we should be ashamed to try and get them in trouble, what do you think , we are very concerned since we have 5 children one with special needs and cannot simply pick up and move somewhere else at this time (our plans to move out of the country was cancelled when they messed it up by not finishing this a year and a half ago.) would really appreciate your take on this, all the best and you are really sweet to take the time to answer our questions and try and put things into perspective for us , thanks again golds

Answer
Hello again,

I'm sorry about all your troubles.  It seems these 'buyers' were being very deceptive.

If I understand what you are saying these buyers are on public assistance and probably have no money.  If that is the case, then suing them will not get you any financial gain.  It will probably cost you money.

Just be glad you are able to get out of the contract with them and go on with your lives.  They sound crazy.

Hans