Dispute on validity of contract agreement

[Willowtree]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Louisiana. My exhusband and I were selling our home. The real estate agent told me I could not retain my mineral rights. She also included my washer and dryer in the agreement. When she brought me the agreement, it was supposed to be signed by a certain time. She wrote a counter offer with a different date and time and attached to it. My exhusband was on a fishing trip out of state and did not sign the contract till after the deadline time but he signed the counter offer attached before the alloted time. I must add that he was drunk and did not read or understand about the mineral rights. He was told it needed to be signed quickly. I then found that I could retain my mineral rights and asked for this to be rectified. The buyer refused but said that if we put a new roof on the house, lowered the asking price and he retained 50% of the mineral rights that he would accept otherwise he would keep the original agreement. He stated this in a letter to the realtor. He said that he would sue. He has put no deposit down. He said he would pay cash but has not shown that he had it. I feel I was misinformed, misrepresented and the realtor will not rectify this. What can I do to get out of this and just keep the house myself? Thank you for any help recieved!

 

[Zigner]

Why shouldn't your ex husband be entitled to keep his portion of the house?

You need an attorney.

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Louisiana. My exhusband and I were selling our home. The real estate agent told me I could not retain my mineral rights. She also included my washer and dryer in the agreement. When she brought me the agreement, it was supposed to be signed by a certain time. She wrote a counter offer with a different date and time and attached to it. My exhusband was on a fishing trip out of state and did not sign the contract till after the deadline time but he signed the counter offer attached before the alloted time. I must add that he was drunk and did not read or understand about the mineral rights. He was told it needed to be signed quickly. I then found that I could retain my mineral rights and asked for this to be rectified. The buyer refused but said that if we put a new roof on the house, lowered the asking price and he retained 50% of the mineral rights that he would accept otherwise he would keep the original agreement. He stated this in a letter to the realtor. He said that he would sue. He has put no deposit down. He said he would pay cash but has not shown that he had it. I feel I was misinformed, misrepresented and the realtor will not rectify this. What can I do to get out of this and just keep the house myself? Thank you for any help recieved!

 

[FlyingRon]

First off, let's remove some things from the situation that are irrelevant:

1. Nothing verbally stated has any bearing.
2. Your husband being drunk or failing to bother to read the contract has no bearing.

You're probably beyond what the realtor can do (legally or practically), you likely need an attorney at this point.

My big question is whether you even have a valid contract. When you make a counter offer, it specifically rejects the earlier offer. I'm not sure why anybody would sign the original offer if they were countering anything. Your realtor appear to be an idiot if she had you do so. The original offer is then dead on counter. Now what matters is what was in your counter offer and whether the buyer accepted it in the time frame you placed on it. Did the buyer accept your counter?

Time for figuring out what your rights are were BEFORE you started making contacts.

You should now do what you should have done at the outset...see a lawyer.