Holly Springs
Junior Member
What is the name of your state?
What is the name of your state? North Carolina
We had contracted to sell our house on 5/13/02. There were no closing costs to be paid by us. It was on a standard RE form with the normal provisions. There was one addendum in that the radon test had to come back at an acceptable level. The Seller's had put a closing date of 5/28/02 in the contract but had requested we close on 5/24/02 (11 days from offer). That was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and they wanted the long weekend to move into the house. The buyers deposited $1,600 and we accepted the offer.
From 5/14-5/20 the normal services were performed (survey, termite and overall inspections).
On 5/22 we met over the telephone with our agent and the buyers agent and went over the inspection report. There were four small items that ended up costing $100 total to repair. The buyers agent informed us that there were two slight encroachments on the survey but felt that there were no issues with this. He said he would speak with his clients.
On 5/23 at 9:00 AM our agent called and said that the buyers lawyer had recommended they had the radon test done before close (the buyers were starting to run out of time for a 5/24 close). My agent recommended that we put some money in escrow as good faith that we would fix any radon probelms should there be any as a result of the test that would take place after close. We agreed to put $2,500 in an escrow account for this purpose.
On 5/23 at 11:30 AM had a phone meeting with our agent, buyers agent and buyers lenders. Buyers agent indicated that their lawyer was having trouble with the survey. We offered to sign a statement saying the property is the same as we bought it. It should also be noted that these encroachments was my fence being over the neighbor's line by six inches. The other encroachment was a community fence (not owned by me) at the rear of the property that was over the line by 1.3 feet. I reiterated that we would put $2,500 in escrow for the radon and that the repairs were being made the morning of 5/24. I would later that day sign an agreement stating the above facts at my agents office. The buyers lenders indicated that they could have the loan paperwork over to the lawyers by late morning on 5/24 so that we could close. The buyers agent said he would talk to his clients but thought that this would be alright.
On 5/23 at 3:00, my agent called and said the buyers wanted to wait until after the weekend to close. This put us in a tough spot. We scheduled the close of the house we were buying for the afternoon of 5/24 seeing that we needed the proceeds from the sale of this house to buy our new house. We had our entire house packed and ready to move on 5/24. We now had to cancel the movers and cancel our closing and could not give a new date as we did not know what the buyers were doing.
On 5/24 at 3:30, had another meeting with my agent and buyers agent. The buyers lawyer said they were taking things too fast and that a new close date of 6/4 was proposed. The buyers agent also indicated that we were pushing the buyers. We never asked for the 5/24 or 5/28 closing dates. We had to arrange all of our schedules around their wishes to close at these aggressive dates. At the time, our children were 2 years and 1 month respectively. This was extremely difficult to cater to their closing date but we did. Our agent was sensing this may be about the encroachments. She asked their agent what they wanted us to do? She offered him $100 for the encroachments.
On 5/25 at 10:00 AM our agent notified us that the buyers were pulling out of the deal for our failure to respond to the survey/encroachments. We were dumbfounded. Our agent recommended that we keep the earnest money. She felt that we were taken advantage of and that these folks decided they didn't want the house after they were deep into the process. They never came back to us and requested us to do something about the encroachments. These folks were paying over our asking price. If they had wanted us to move the fence back, we would have done that, especially seeing that now we had time as they proposed a date of June 4th for close.
Shortly thereafter, a couple of letters exchanged hands. The buyers wanted their deposit back. These letters were accusatory and inflammatory, accusing us of being vindictive and out for our own financial gain. All of our responses were professional and business-like.
In August 2002, in a mean spirited letter, they offered us $200 which we countered with $1,000 (to us). We never heard anything more from them.
We were served small claims papers on May 19, 2005 for $2,824.19 by the buyers which includes the $1,600.00 plus the other costs associated with trying to buy the house. Our question is, do we have a leg to stand on? Our agent has said she would come down to testify on our behalf. We subsequently sold our house a month later for $1,500 less than the original buyers had contracted.
We feel we acted in good faith throughout the whole process and feel we are entitled to the money. We are thinking about just offering them their $1,600.00 as we do not want to be on the hook for the additional money, lawyer consultation, etc.
I can answer any additional questions you may have.
Thanks-
HS
What is the name of your state? North CarolinaWe had contracted to sell our house on 5/13/02. There were no closing costs to be paid by us. It was on a standard RE form with the normal provisions. There was one addendum in that the radon test had to come back at an acceptable level. The Seller's had put a closing date of 5/28/02 in the contract but had requested we close on 5/24/02 (11 days from offer). That was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and they wanted the long weekend to move into the house. The buyers deposited $1,600 and we accepted the offer.
From 5/14-5/20 the normal services were performed (survey, termite and overall inspections).
On 5/22 we met over the telephone with our agent and the buyers agent and went over the inspection report. There were four small items that ended up costing $100 total to repair. The buyers agent informed us that there were two slight encroachments on the survey but felt that there were no issues with this. He said he would speak with his clients.
On 5/23 at 9:00 AM our agent called and said that the buyers lawyer had recommended they had the radon test done before close (the buyers were starting to run out of time for a 5/24 close). My agent recommended that we put some money in escrow as good faith that we would fix any radon probelms should there be any as a result of the test that would take place after close. We agreed to put $2,500 in an escrow account for this purpose.
On 5/23 at 11:30 AM had a phone meeting with our agent, buyers agent and buyers lenders. Buyers agent indicated that their lawyer was having trouble with the survey. We offered to sign a statement saying the property is the same as we bought it. It should also be noted that these encroachments was my fence being over the neighbor's line by six inches. The other encroachment was a community fence (not owned by me) at the rear of the property that was over the line by 1.3 feet. I reiterated that we would put $2,500 in escrow for the radon and that the repairs were being made the morning of 5/24. I would later that day sign an agreement stating the above facts at my agents office. The buyers lenders indicated that they could have the loan paperwork over to the lawyers by late morning on 5/24 so that we could close. The buyers agent said he would talk to his clients but thought that this would be alright.
On 5/23 at 3:00, my agent called and said the buyers wanted to wait until after the weekend to close. This put us in a tough spot. We scheduled the close of the house we were buying for the afternoon of 5/24 seeing that we needed the proceeds from the sale of this house to buy our new house. We had our entire house packed and ready to move on 5/24. We now had to cancel the movers and cancel our closing and could not give a new date as we did not know what the buyers were doing.
On 5/24 at 3:30, had another meeting with my agent and buyers agent. The buyers lawyer said they were taking things too fast and that a new close date of 6/4 was proposed. The buyers agent also indicated that we were pushing the buyers. We never asked for the 5/24 or 5/28 closing dates. We had to arrange all of our schedules around their wishes to close at these aggressive dates. At the time, our children were 2 years and 1 month respectively. This was extremely difficult to cater to their closing date but we did. Our agent was sensing this may be about the encroachments. She asked their agent what they wanted us to do? She offered him $100 for the encroachments.
On 5/25 at 10:00 AM our agent notified us that the buyers were pulling out of the deal for our failure to respond to the survey/encroachments. We were dumbfounded. Our agent recommended that we keep the earnest money. She felt that we were taken advantage of and that these folks decided they didn't want the house after they were deep into the process. They never came back to us and requested us to do something about the encroachments. These folks were paying over our asking price. If they had wanted us to move the fence back, we would have done that, especially seeing that now we had time as they proposed a date of June 4th for close.
Shortly thereafter, a couple of letters exchanged hands. The buyers wanted their deposit back. These letters were accusatory and inflammatory, accusing us of being vindictive and out for our own financial gain. All of our responses were professional and business-like.
In August 2002, in a mean spirited letter, they offered us $200 which we countered with $1,000 (to us). We never heard anything more from them.
We were served small claims papers on May 19, 2005 for $2,824.19 by the buyers which includes the $1,600.00 plus the other costs associated with trying to buy the house. Our question is, do we have a leg to stand on? Our agent has said she would come down to testify on our behalf. We subsequently sold our house a month later for $1,500 less than the original buyers had contracted.
We feel we acted in good faith throughout the whole process and feel we are entitled to the money. We are thinking about just offering them their $1,600.00 as we do not want to be on the hook for the additional money, lawyer consultation, etc.
I can answer any additional questions you may have.
Thanks-
HS