verbal agreement

[metallicaman]

Hello! First time using this so I'll try to be brief. My wife and I recently purchased a home in Delaware. We had been living in another Delaware residence on property owned by my wife's ex-husband's brother and wife. My wife and he (ex-hubby) moved to DE from New Jersey and agreed to pay $400.00 per month to help with the mortgage, although they were not on the deed nor could make any claim against the property (it is a 30-acre farm). They placed a double-wide trailer on the property on a site where another double-wide had sat. There was never a written contract for the $400.00 monthly fee; it was all verbal. When he (the ex) moved out, the agreement was not amended in any way. When I moved in, the agreement was not amended. Nothing was ever signed binding my wife to pay this money, although she continued to do so, considering it rent. When we announced to the owners that we were moving and were looking to sell the trailer, the wife tried to make things very difficult by withholding important mail from our mortgage agent and auto insurance carrier, which caused us to almost not get the house and lose our auto policy, which we didn't find out about until 4 months later...fortunately, we were not in any accidents or pulled over by the police! In any case, we got a prospective buyer very quickly - someone who is very close friends with the owners. Our agreement with the owners was that we would not pay for storing the trailer on their property as long as we had a buyer. If things fell through, we would be required to begin paying an undetermined amount per month until we got another buyer. Our buyer began trying to obtain financing in the beginning of June (we closed May 31st on our new home and he wanted to make sure everything was OK with that before he started). We moved out June 16th and paid a full $400.00 for June's rent (we were there only 1/2 month, but we felt we should pay the whole month). Our buyer was anticipating moving in on the 17th, but could not obtain financing by then. He tried several sources and was unsuccessful every time. At the beginning of July, we listed the home with the agency who had sold it to my wife. They agreed to finance our buyer. Everything went fine and they were to settle around July 12th. Shortly before that, the buyer called and said he couldn't accept the terms of the selling agency because he wouldn't be able to pay rent to the owners if he did. Then, we didn't hear from him for approx. one month. Meanwhile, the owner of the property (the wife) called to say she wanted money for storage. We explained we still had a buyer and he had only a couple weeks left before we dropped him and relisted the house, at which time we would begin paying for storage. We finally heard from him at the start of August...actually it was his attorney contacting us by way of the selling agency. They forwarded the attorney's letter to us and said they were not dealing with him any more. The attorney was asking for a lot of things to be paid by us, but we stood by our initial agreement with the buyer. The contract was amended to what we originally agreed to and the house was sold to the buyer on August 23rd. The owner of the property (the wife again) is now asking us to pay $200.00 for July. We explained we never caused the buyer any undue delay in obtaining the house...he couldn't get financed but that was not our fault. Additionally, no amount of the fee for storage was ever discussed. Furthermore, we never signed any contract binding us to pay the $400.00 in the first place...everything was verbal. I know she will continue to hound us for this money...she is extremely petty and was upset we were moving off the property - she did what she could to trip us up at every turn, even to the extent of committing mail tampering. We were willing to let that go, but if it becomes a court issue, we intend to fully proceed with a countersuit on that basis. My questions (finally!) are: are we obligated to pay her the $200.00 she is demanding (it's not a request!)? If it goes to court, can we suitably defend ourselves by virtue of the fact there was no written contract? Is a verbal agreement binding in Delaware? I apologize for the length of this, but I wanted to be clear on all points. Thank you for any assistance you can provide.

 

[HomeGuru]

4418 words over $200?

x

 

[metallicaman]

It's the principle...and you have to know her to understand the situation. She'd take us to court in a heartbeat - I just want to have my ducks in a row in case it happens that way. If we have the legal backing to refute her argument, we can safely go to court. If not, we'd just pay it and be rid of her.

 

[wtd]

1) Your wife and her former huband rented a trailer site from your wife's ex- brother and sister-in-law for $400.00. with no written agreement.
2)Your wife got divorced from her ex-husband, you and she were married and you moved into the trailer with her.
3) You and your wife bought a new house and told landlord that you were going to move.
4) An agreement was reached with the landlord, whereby you would pay no rent, so long as you had a prospective buyer on the hook and rent payments would resume should the prospective buyer fall off the hook.
5) You paid the rent for June - you paid one full month, because the tenancy was month-to-month.
6) You obtained a viable prospective buyer during the first part of June.
7) By June 17 the propective buyer was no longer a prospective buyer, as buyer had attempted to obtain financing multiple times and failed at each attempt, making it a reasonable assumption that buyer would be ultimately never obtain financing and was now just another person who wanted to buy a house and couldn't.
8) Rent due July 1 (no prospective buyer). Not paid.
9) During the first part of July, the former prospective buyer reappears but cannot finance the trailer. Exit prospective buyer.
10) Landlord demands rent - see #8 & #9 above.
11) Rent due August 1 (no prospective buyer). Not paid.
12) First part of August, prospective buyer makes routine monthly appearance. This time with financing.
13) August 23 - house sold to buyer.

Did I omit anything? If not you owe the landlord $800.00.
Pay the $200.00 and move on.


wtd

 

[metallicaman]

for wtd...You didn't omit anything, but I did apparently...the original agreement was no longer valid effective 6/30/01. The owners gave verbal consent to this and to the fact that we would no longer be paying $400.00 per month, but a lesser amount which would be discussed if arrangements with the buyer could not be settled in a reasonable time. You bring up an interesting point about the prospective buyer which we didn't realize...at what point is the prospective buyer no longer "prospective"? Is it at the point when he was unable to obtain financing the first time, or does he remain prospective until he decides he doesn't want to try any more (or until we decide we don't want to wait for him to get financing)? Obviously, this leaves the owner in a predicament because she didn't cause the buyer any undue delay with any of her actions, although she did try to foul us up on several things. We'll probably just pay her the $200.00 and call it quits. Thanks for your help!

 

[wtd]

Glad this helped.
Good luck,
wtd