What to do next?

[beach side]

Hi All, my first visit to such a site!
We are currently selling a property that we have a firm offer on, the only clause in contract is subject to finance - buyer is a investor/developer so shouldnt be an issue. However on inspection by said home loan issuer (which is apparently his mate), said the property isnt the size 3 out of the 4 searches say it is. Its being advertised at the size I purchased it as but seems to be less according to said sources but I had no idea about this until today.... now purchaser wants to drop the price... I have been told that the ball is in my court however he can apparently then take me to court and sue me for damages? Has anyone experienced this before? any help would be much appreciated - Thanks in advance

 

[laurencei]

sounds all a bit dodgy. due dillengence is on their part - not yours. if you advertised the property correctly - its not your issue what their searches show up. they are just trying to pressure you on price

 

[Jaggannath]

Uh huh, sounds like a trick that's worked for them before. If the facts are correct with the land office, tell them to piddle or get off the pot, no confidence tricks to try get you dancing to their tune. However, check your facts first

 

[marg4000]

Actually, the ball is in the buyer's court.

This would be grounds for the buyer to pull out of the contract. This is the whole point of searches - to check all relevant details.

To sue you the person has to suffer a loss. The buyer now has the opportunity to crash the contract, so no loss suffered. If he/she chooses to go ahead, it is in the full knowledge of the facts.

Depending on your circumstances, it may be worth offering a token price reduction to ensure the sale goes ahead (I am thinking around $1K or $2K) so long as the discrepancy is minor.

If the contract crashes, it would pay you to have the property surveyed before advertising it for sale again to ensure the facts are correct.
Marg

 

[laurencei]

Actually, the ball is in the buyer's court.

This would be grounds for the buyer to pull out of the contract. This is the whole point of searches - to check all relevant details.

If the only clause is subject to finance - how does this happen? They are stating some 3rd party search engines returned a wrong figure - all that matters is what the title shows.

Sure - the bank could reject the finance, based on that information -but I dont understand how else they could pull out?

 

[beach side]

Thanks for the replies.

We consulted with the conveyancer and a solicitor, both had said that said purchaser has 14 days to come back after settlement to sue us for damages if we dont negotiate with his come back offer, as property wasnt as listed correctly even though its listed as approx and has clauses on the brochure, these may stand up in court but may not and we got out of it by $2k in the end (fingers crossed, the new agreement was written up and we are awaiting on finance approval from them) so I dont really think it was worth it to fight in the end which could have won them $10k or more at the end of the day when we have dropped our price to begin with and it was only 28 or approx sqm. I agree that the purchaser is just trying to drop the price and sounds like an opportunistic bully! arrrggghhhh this selling game is a nightmare, I cannot find any of our original paperwork, you know safe place that you cannot remember where it is, however an old appraisal on the place says the same size of land that we thought it was? Interesting to find out whose stuff up it is at the end of the day but we may never know

 

[beach side]

If the only clause is subject to finance - how does this happen? They are stating some 3rd party search engines returned a wrong figure - all that matters is what the title shows.

Sure - the bank could reject the finance, based on that information -but I dont understand how else they could pull out?

hey laurence, the financer is a best mate, they keep saying they can pull out whenever they want, "insert swear words here" 3 out of 4 say the same thing but the LTO is apparently the only correct document out of the 4. council is even wrong, I have no idea how it all happened and especially since I cannot locate all of my paperwork on the sale I only had it 6 weeks ago and it has all dissappeared

 

[sanj]

Thanks for the replies.

We consulted with the conveyancer and a solicitor, both had said that said purchaser has 14 days to come back after settlement to sue us for damages if we dont negotiate with his come back offer, as property wasnt as listed correctly even though its listed as approx and has clauses on the brochure, these may stand up in court but may not and we got out of it by $2k in the end (fingers crossed, the new agreement was written up and we are awaiting on finance approval from them) so I dont really think it was worth it to fight in the end which could have won them $10k or more at the end of the day when we have dropped our price to begin with and it was only 28 or approx sqm. I agree that the purchaser is just trying to drop the price and sounds like an opportunistic bully! arrrggghhhh this selling game is a nightmare, I cannot find any of our original paperwork, you know safe place that you cannot remember where it is, however an old appraisal on the place says the same size of land that we thought it was? Interesting to find out whose stuff up it is at the end of the day but we may never know

im confused, what damages? am i reading it wrong?

the purchasers havent settled on your property so what damages would they have suffered?

 

[beach side]

something along the lines of not getting exactly what they purchased etc, cannot remember the legal terms but the disclaimer may not cover us and it wasnt worth fighting it any further we thought. Anyway we met them nearly half way from their original drop, agent giving us some refund also so lost out 2k approx. The **** wants access to do work and asked for it after all this crap that has happened and we just said NO WAY! So finally we win and he looses! He isnt happy and we are finally stoked the ball is in our court!