Sales contract and cancellation

[fadywwf316]

What is the name of your state? NJ

I was wondering, my dad was interested in buying a gas station and after talking with the owner, my dad and his partner were ready to write up a contract. The seller basically wanted a $10K down payment and when asked if he had a contract in writing yet, he said something along the lines of his lawyer is closed that day, but they can put the down payment and they will have everything they discussed by word of mouth in writing. Well, when they received the contract, there were material changes to the terms negotiated verbally. They made changes to correct these changes to the contract but the seller did not accept and cancelled the contract. He also kept $2K from the down payment as an agreed upon amount to cover lawyer fees. Now, I'm wondering if this money is recoverable at all since it was the seller who cancelled the contract and due to the material changes he made. Now I know that its very hard to prove anything verbal (even if my dad and his partner were both present). But, is there any hope?

 

[BoredAtty]

What is the name of your state? NJ

I was wondering, my dad was interested in buying a gas station and after talking with the owner, my dad and his partner were ready to write up a contract. The seller basically wanted a $10K down payment and when asked if he had a contract in writing yet, he said something along the lines of his lawyer is closed that day, but they can put the down payment and they will have everything they discussed by word of mouth in writing. Well, when they received the contract, there were material changes to the terms negotiated verbally. They made changes to correct these changes to the contract but the seller did not accept and cancelled the contract. He also kept $2K from the down payment as an agreed upon amount to cover lawyer fees. Now, I'm wondering if this money is recoverable at all since it was the seller who cancelled the contract and due to the material changes he made. Now I know that its very hard to prove anything verbal (even if my dad and his partner were both present). But, is there any hope?

You state that the owner "kept $2K from the down payment as an agreed upon amount to cover lawyer fees." Who agreed to that?

The bottom line is that the owner has no right to keep any money unless your father and his partners agreed that part of the down payment would be non-refundable. Without such an agreement, the owner cannot arbitrarily decide for himself to keep anything.