Are we within our rights to refuse to close?

[twoplus1]

What is the name of your state? Alabama

Contract to sell our home to buyer indicated that closing would take place on or before May 15, 2008. May 15, 2008 came and went with the buyer unable to close due to problems getting his financing in order. We did not sign any additional addendums and waited day by day for this guy to get his act together. We communicated to our agent verbally that we would no longer wait on this buyer if closing did not occur before 2 PM on May 30. We do not have other offers on the house, we have just had enough of this waiting by the phone day by day and we need to get our house back in order after all of the chaos surrounding the "near move". Magically, the buyer is ready to close on Monday June 2, and only that day or he will lose his financing. We are firm that he is a day late a dollar short and we are not willing to take this up again. He is now threatening to sue us - not sure for what exactly - since we are no longer willing to sell him our home. In addition, the sellers of the home we had a contract to buy contingent on the sale of our home say that we will not get our earnest money back from them because we had a buyer and are choosing not to close. That contract was contingent on the closing of the sale of our home on or before May 15 and also had no addendums stating otherwise. Are we correct in our belief that we had no contract with the buyer of our home after he was unable to perform under the contract terms on May 15 and that as a result he has no complaint against us? Are we also correct in our belief that we have full rights to our earnest money back on the home we were contracted to buy? Our agent and his broker think we are fine, but we can't consult a real estate attorney until Monday.

Thank you for any help.

[HUD-1]

Did your contract have the "time is of the essence" language? If it did not, the buyer could still be given a "reasonable" amount of time to close. I am a layman, but two more weeks doesn't seem too unreasonable...

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by twoplus1

...
We do not have other offers on the house, we have just had enough of this waiting by the phone day by day and we need to get our house back in order after all of the chaos surrounding the "near move".
...

Then SELL!

After the closing, take the buyers out for supper.