I have never seen a contract with a paragraph “seller to do all repairs”
Was this spelled out on a specific addendum, requested by the buyer?
(1) as a seller, I would ALWAYS put an upper limit on repairs, e.g. “seller to do all repairs up to $2000”.
Or $50,000.
(2) No house is flawless. You get an inspection and come up with $16k of repairs. Get those repairs done, then a new inspection is ordered, and another $10k of repairs are found. Rinse and repeat.
Which is why (1) is first.
I am not sure what happens if the seller refuses to do repairs and you refuse to remove the inspection contingency. Would the contract be automatically void, yet still needs your cancellation? Depends on how this paragraph is exactly worded.
I’m really surprised that this happens in a competitive market like Milpitas.
You should get a sewer line inspection. There’s a great chance a crack is found. The work can be done by day laborers for $300 to $500, but a plumber from the Yellow Pages will quote you $10k+ for the same job. A camera inspection of a sewer line used to cost $250, in places where they are mandatory, the price has increased to around $650 now.
As someone said earlier, pretty much everywhere else in the US, this kind of thing is normal. When we bought our house here, relatives from Chicago were puzzled why we didn’t make the seller fix the stuff in the disclosures and do the tenting. We were like “You kidding??? No one does that here. You get the house and run!” They’d asked for silly things like fixing screen doors.
The seller and his/her RE agent saw the clause and decided it was better to push forward on the offer and fail to perform later.
If #1, I’m not sure how big a deal that is if the offer is otherwise an easy offer to do. How much does the RE agent really do to close the deal? We found that our mortgage broker was the one busting butt at that point. But it does indicate a problem with the agent.
If #2, then seller was not in a good position and took the offer out of necessity. IN this case buyer can push for price reduction and be done with it.
The real question is whether another offer can come in at offer-$15K. If not, seller needs you. How can you know? Ask seller what the second up offer was. If he says it was within $15K of yours, ask to see it. Otherwise tell him you’ll stay if $15K is knocked off the price.
The other option for the seller is to go back onto the market. It’s risky, but possible as spring is coming and the market will heat up. But if Jil is right, the seller may lose. I’d agree that the risk now is far more than the risk in 2014.
If there’s a contract, seller needs to perform, period!
What are the legal consequences? I don’t know! I thought you guys with years of experience knew.
So, as I said, the Realtors are the ones that have to make a move, force the seller to perform, or, face the fact that they are going to be stained by their denial to close a deal, their actions are going to set a precedent, they are going to be scrutinized and/or destroyed by promising and not delivering.
I thought it’d already been stated that when a buyer doesn’t perform, they lose their deposit, but when a seller doesn’t perform, the buyer has little recourse. That’s certainly the vague impression I’ve always had.
The contract has # of dates has to close before the contract is void right?
then seller can take his time telling u, yea i’m gonna fix this. then xxx days passed, and end the contract expired. no breach of no contract
is that right?
A contract for the purchase of a home is just that - a contract. It is legally binding on the home sellers who agreed to make the repair. As such, you may have a few different options.
Options for a Home Seller’s Breach of Contract
The first and easiest option is to contact your real estate agent and/or the real estate agent who represented the sellers. There may have been money placed into an escrow account for the repair that can be paid out to you. This would allow you to get the problem resolved quickly.
If there was no money in the escrow account, or no escrow account, then your only other recourse is to file a court action against the sellers. You could potentially file such an action for “specific performance” to compel them to fix the furnace, however this is probably not the best way to go because then you’ll be stuck with a house that has a broken furnace for the duration of the court case.
If you can’t wait around for the case to play out while you have no furnace, you’ll have to bite the bullet and fix it yourself. If you decide on this option, then you’ll file a civil suit to get back the money you paid out to fix the furnace. This money that you spend is considered to be “damages” for the seller’s breach of contract and as long as you keep careful records of the money paid out, you keep the costs reasonable, and you really did have a legally valid contract, then you have a good chance of winning your case and having the sellers pay out.
Getting Help When a Home Seller Breaches the Contract
If you do intend to pursue a breach of contract case, it is in your best interests to consult with an attorney for guidance and advice.
It’s pretty rare if not expensive to go forward with this type of lawsuit. Usually, the seller gives up facing a long battle in court. Of course, market conditions triumph over it. Seller may gain more by delaying the sale if market is hot. And so is the buyer, $15K may be a lot for him, but it may gain him more in the long run by just buying and doing the repairs little by little and perhaps cheaper.
Who knows. I wouldn’t like to be in the seller’s shoes, eventually s/he has to make a decision which can cost them dearly.
If the seller signed and agree on that term, I think he’s in trouble. By just not signing the cancellation of contract, the seller would force to work with you for the reduced price, or else they can’t sell it to other buyers while he’s in contract with you. every days goes by will create a lot of stress on the seller such as keeping up the property, cost of maintaining the property. I would personally never sign an offer with such term.
