Question about conditions on contracts

Hello,

I've a legal question that someone might be able to answer.

Is it possible, as a buyer, to add a stipulation when you sign a contract that, if the vendors don't return a signed copy within a certain period of time (10 days, for example) that the contract is null and void, even if the closing date might a couple of months into the future?

This would apply in a situation with a long closing where you don't really trust the vendors to actually follow through on the sale, but where contracts have actually been issued.

Cheers

its possible, but the seller may not accept it.

Have you tried asking your solicitor?

Ravima said:

its possible, but the seller may not accept it.

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True, but if the seller doesn't accept it then it's reasonable to assume that they're not willing to sign in the first place (or, at least, to stick to the closing date).

Rainyday said:

Have you tried asking your solicitor?

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I will do, when the contracts actually arrive and we can see the closing date on them. It's just a thought that occurred to me today when thinking about how best to play it.

Cheers.

Hi, Is the contract subject to sale of the buyer's own house? because if your buyer has only put their house on the market, they may be worried about signing too early.

Once the seller sends the contract to the buyer it can be assumed that he/she is ready to sign it. If you have not made any changes or ammendments then I think that it is a reasonable request.
If you have made changes then it is out of the question as they will have to be dealth with first.
I sell many more properties than I buy and I can tell you that the shoe is more often on the other foot. You send out the contracts and it is like pulling teeth trying to get them back signed and when they come back they will probably have stupid conditions added that are just there to delay things.

From my experiance delays are often outside the control of the buyer/seller, solicitors, brokers, banks etc. pay no heed to deadlines you give them, they can be difficult to contact and bad at returning calls. You could put it in the contract but give a reasonable turnaround time as delays are really unavoidable.

frando said:

Hi, Is the contract subject to sale of the buyer's own house? because if your buyer has only put their house on the market, they may be worried about signing too early.

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Sorry, perhaps I should have been clearer. I'm the buyer, not the seller.

tostao said:

From my experiance delays are often outside the control of the buyer/seller, solicitors, brokers, banks etc. pay no heed to deadlines you give them, they can be difficult to contact and bad at returning calls. You could put it in the contract but give a reasonable turnaround time as delays are really unavoidable.

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That's all fair, but this particular question is arising from a situation where (for reasons I obviously don't want to go into publicly) there's something very fishy about the vendors and there have already been contract problems, so I don't really want to be in a position where we've signed contracts and then have to wait weeks or months (losing money all the time) only for them to turn around and say they're pulling out.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

The only problem for you the buyer is that if you return signed contracts stating that your offer remains open for acceptance for a limited period, and the seller does not sign and return contacts withint that period, what do you do. I suppose the point is that an empty threat is not a threat at all.
I suspect that if the sellers wanted to delay and made up some plausible excuse, you would probably accept it and extend the date which makes a mockery of any revised time limit.

dmkelly said:

The only problem for you the buyer is that if you return signed contracts stating that your offer remains open for acceptance for a limited period, and the seller does not sign and return contacts withint that period, what do you do. I suppose the point is that an empty threat is not a threat at all.
I suspect that if the sellers wanted to delay and made up some plausible excuse, you would probably accept it and extend the date which makes a mockery of any revised time limit.

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Yes, I'm aware that I'd have to stick to this. However, given the problems that we've had with the vendors and the fact that I've come very close to withdrawing the offer already, this condition would be a 'final straw' thing, rather than just a casual threat.