Can buyer push back closing date of a newly built home? (clause, construction)
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First the home he is closing will be newly built home with a public traded company. Fiscal quarter I believe ends Q1 (March 30th).
Anyways, the builder has delayed numerous times (force majeure clause). And it wasn't even weather related. Some BS excuses after excuses. Home was supposed to be done by Jan 2012.
Finally builder has now set a closing date of March 24th 2012.
My brother is temporarily living with my mother along with his 2 kids and wife. So he's really in no rush.
I am telling him to play games with the builder and push it back another 2 weeks?
He hasn't gone through inspection process. He's going to hire someone to inspect and I told the guy to fault everything in this home. I am out of state right now and haven't had chance to look over his contract yet.
His options should be spelled out in his purchase contract. I'd be surprised if a licensed inspector would agree to fault "everything" if issues really don't exist. They would have to be documented and provable to the builder.
Depends on what the contract says. If I'm your brother (and my own brother was recently in a similar situation), I would just close and get on with my life. Also, I can't imagine a licensed inspector would risk their livelihood by falsifying an inspection.
When it comes down to it . . . I'm just not sure what you hope to gain by doing this except maybe some extremely small dose of revenge. I think you may be encouraging your brother to bite off his nose to spite his face.
First the home he is closing will be newly built home with a public traded company. Fiscal quarter I believe ends Q1 (March 30th).
Anyways, the builder has delayed numerous times (force majeure clause). And it wasn't even weather related. Some BS excuses after excuses. Home was supposed to be done by Jan 2012.
Finally builder has now set a closing date of March 24th 2012.
My brother is temporarily living with my mother along with his 2 kids and wife. So he's really in no rush.
I am telling him to play games with the builder and push it back another 2 weeks?
He hasn't gone through inspection process. He's going to hire someone to inspect and I told the guy to fault everything in this home. I am out of state right now and haven't had chance to look over his contract yet.
Can he do this?
Money isn't any issue.
What would be the reason to "play games with the builder"?
You're asking a home inspector to file an inaccurate inspection report? I hope he tells you exactly where you can stuff that request, and goes on to do an honest inspection, which might actually provide some value to your brother, letting him know what't done well and what's not. I also hope he doesn't mention it to the builder, because that might cause harm to your brother.
If you wanted to "look over" your brothers contract, I suspect you've had plenty of opportunity to do so before, though I doubt, based on what you've posted here, that you would have been helpful in even the slightest way. My advice to your brother, if he needs someone to guide him in this process, is to seek someone better than you. Shouldn't be too difficult to find.
P.S. I fully expect to be hit by a MOD for persona attack here. So be it. Jackassery like what you are suggesting needs to be called out for the stupidity it is, lest someone see it & think it's good advice.
He read the contract over and said builder will give him 30 days notice of what day the home will close. And he will have to close within 2 weeks of that date.
The penalty for not closing within that 2 week period is that he will have to pay for the monthly property tax.
It's a million dollar plus home. Real estate property taxes are weird in Maryland with new homes with the way they assess new homes.
Either way, he's probably looking at $13-15K property taxes per year.....so the penalty to delay is roughly $1K a month in property taxes if he delays it.
What would be the reason to "play games with the builder"?
You're asking a home inspector to file an inaccurate inspection report? I hope he tells you exactly where you can stuff that request, and goes on to do an honest inspection, which might actually provide some value to your brother, letting him know what't done well and what's not. I also hope he doesn't mention it to the builder, because that might cause harm to your brother.
If you wanted to "look over" your brothers contract, I suspect you've had plenty of opportunity to do so before, though I doubt, based on what you've posted here, that you would have been helpful in even the slightest way. My advice to your brother, if he needs someone to guide him in this process, is to seek someone better than you. Shouldn't be too difficult to find.
P.S. I fully expect to be hit by a MOD for persona attack here. So be it. Jackassery like what you are suggesting needs to be called out for the stupidity it is, lest someone see it & think it's good advice.
The reason to play games with the builder is this:
1. Home is more than 2 months behind schedule. Weather has been holding up very well up in Maryland.
2. Another home (went under contract 1 month after my brother signed his) with same builder in same community, was completed by end of December 2012, 2 months ahead of schedule.
It's like they started building his home, stopped when there was something wrong with the foundation. While thinking what the next step to do with the foundation problem, they just started building the other home and just let my brother's new construction sit there.
It's gotta be the quarterly results. Either they try to close by end of Dec, end of March, end of June, end of September. If your home falls in between, builders will just take the sweet time because there is no true deadline for them.
He read the contract over and said builder will give him 30 days notice of what day the home will close. And he will have to close within 2 weeks of that date.
The penalty for not closing within that 2 week period is that he will have to pay for the monthly property tax.
It's a million dollar plus home. Real estate property taxes are weird in Maryland with new homes with the way they assess new homes.
Either way, he's probably looking at $13-15K property taxes per year.....so the penalty to delay is roughly $1K a month in property taxes if he delays it.
Is he trying to drag out the closing so that the builder will have to pay his property tax for a month? This creeps me out. He has a contract with the builder. If the builder delivers late, due to unforeseen circumstances, then the builder is willing to compensate the buyer. It's not written that the buyer can drag his feet and screw the builder out of a month's property tax. I'd say the builder is being overly generous.
We just did a new build. Our builder was 6 weeks late. We lived in a hotel at our cost. The builder picked up nothing.
Like I said, this creeps me out. Seems like someone is always trying to take advantage of someone else with perceivable deep pockets.
It's gotta be the quarterly results. Either they try to close by end of Dec, end of March, end of June, end of September. If your home falls in between, builders will just take the sweet time because there is no true deadline for them.
Builders want their money. They don't get it until the house is finished and the closing occurs. There's no reason for a builder to drag his feet. It's usually a detriment to the builders business to do so.
I think you're over analyzing, and looking petty by trying to hold things up for the builder. That may not be the case, but it's the view from where I sit.
This sounds like a stupid and petty response on your part. Just close and move on.
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