Am I liable?

What is the name of your state? California

Am I liable to sign a quit claim deed on the house that my soon-to-be ex-husband is in the process of buying? I told him that I would sign it verbally and by e-mail but my lawyer told me he wanted to see the escrow paperwork before I signed the document and the escrow is scheduled to close this Friday. My lawyer is in Europe until next Tuesday.

My "husband" tells me that I will be sued for breach of contract if I don't sign the paper. Is this true?

mama23boys said:

What is the name of your state? California

Am I liable to sign a quit claim deed on the house that my soon-to-be ex-husband is in the process of buying? I told him that I would sign it verbally and by e-mail but my lawyer told me he wanted to see the escrow paperwork before I signed the document and the escrow is scheduled to close this Friday. My lawyer is in Europe until next Tuesday.

My "husband" tells me that I will be sued for breach of contract if I don't sign the paper. Is this true?

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My response:

There is no possible way to answer you. We haven't seen your Marital Settlement Agreement, nor are we privy to any agreements between you and your husband concerning this specific topic.

Good luck.

IAAL

You're divorcing the guy, and you agreed to quit claim so he can close on the house he's buying, so that he or the seller's can close without waiting for the divorce to be final (likely to disclaim any future marital property interest in his future home). Now the lawyer wants to review, but isn't available. That means soon to be ex could potentially lose the house he is buying, if those sellers can't wait, and those sellers may in turn lose the house they intended to buy. Nice.

Don't know what to tell you, but the seller's of that house shouldn't be punished because your attorney chose now to be in Europe and is unavailable. Could maybe an associate in his office look it over? When did your attorney tell you this and why weren't arrangements made for this review before the attorney left?

nextwife said:

You're divorcing the guy, and you agreed to quit claim so he can close on the house he's buying, so that he or the seller's can close without waiting for the divorce to be final (likely to disclaim any future marital property interest in his future home). Now the lawyer wants to review, but isn't available. That means soon to be ex could potentially lose the house he is buying, if those sellers can't wait, and those sellers may in turn lose the house they intended to buy. Nice.

Don't know what to tell you, but the seller's of that house shouldn't be punished because your attorney chose now to be in Europe and is unavailable. Could maybe an associate in his office look it over? When did your attorney tell you this and why weren't arrangements made for this review before the attorney left?

Click to expand...

My response:

Nice scenario - - but from where did you extrapolate that specific information?

IAAL

Decades of real estate closings. Transactions backed up against the last business day of the month, in 90% of the transactions I've seen, involve a planned, corresponding physical move. Reason being, closing offices in spring, and on the "last day of the month" are swamped with more closings than they can handle, so the ones that generally are given the last day before a long holiday weekend, are the deals that MUST close, because the others are not as critical as to timing and can be pushed off into the next month.

Especially when a long holiday weekend immediately follows the closing. If a person cannot "close" on the house they are selling, they cannot then close on the house they are buying- because they have no proceeeds with which to complete their purchase. I have seen a number of such situations in which the seller used the buyer's inabilty to close on contract date to bump that buyer in favor of a secondary offer at a greater price, or to utilize their inabilty to meet their contractual closing requirment to wiggle out of a transaction due to a change of heart.

Or a rate lock may be potentially be lost, because the lock-in is expiring. And rates have ticked up in the last 45 days.

Also, closing after the first of the month instead of the end of the month significantly changes the prepayables needed, sometimes so much so that a party is short the money to close.

Basically, failure to close on time opens a whole carton of cans of worms.