I believe we will have a breach of contract here...
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Consulting with your attorney as you've done is the best response. Your contract should spell out the actions you can take in this situation and your attorney can assist you.
Since the sellers don't seem inclined to make the repairs, I'd recommend going for a credit.
We have not closed yet...we were scheduled to close today but the seller has been non responsive and they have let it go...we were scheduled to close but nothing is happening...We have consulted with an attorney..we are calculating our damages. But anybody have any experiences that they can share when they were presented with this kind of thing?
Actually just had this happen in April. The seller missed the repair completion date by 9 days and so we couldn't close on time. The seller paid the relock fee for the buyers. There weren't any other damages since the buyers have an overlap in closing and their lease. The lost rate lock was the only damage...other than additional stress in that situation. I'm in Oregon and not Virginia.
I have one offer accepted and after the inspection the seller agreed to make some repairs. After a week of NOTHING being done, I walked. Lost the cost of the inspection and that was it. The writing was on the wall that it wasn't going to go smoothly.
I experienced something similar last year. The sellers intentionally put off making necessary repairs until the last minute, thinking it was a legit way to delay the closing date so they wouldn't have to live in a hotel until they could close on their new home. It wasn't. The repairs were a condition of closing and no new settlement date had been agreed to per the contract. Long story short, they refused to offer any concessions and when the closing date kept getting delayed and delayed due to delays they attributed to the contractors and inspectors, I couldn't wait any longer and was able to walk away from the sale - there were plenty of comparable homes on the market.
However, because they were in breach, we are in the midst of a drawn out legal battle to recover all the costs they have created due to their negligence/disregard/selfishness: reimbursement for the appraisal, inspection, and survey; the costs of storage and temporary housing since my landlord had rented out my apt and I had to vacate; and the difference in interest rates since I had locked at a pretty good time and could not get the same rate when I finally bought a different house (that means about $7000 in interest over the life of the loan). If I had gotten a more expensive house my attorney said I probably could have added the difference in price to the heap too. And as if that weren't enough, my agent is also suing them for lost commission AND there is a lien on their house so they can't even relist it to sell until this whole mess is cleared up.
Seems to me like in retrospect, spending a week at a hotel was a much better deal.
What kind of damages are you calculating? If you were expecting either the $6500 or $8000 homebuyer credit, you might want to let them know that is also at stake if you can't close before 6/30. You may even be able to go after that if you decide to walk away, since it's too late to get under contract on a new home to be eligible (deadline was 5/1). Good luck.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.