Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

I have a question in regards to language in a Residential Sales Contract. My husband and I are in the process of trying to purchase a house. The language states: "OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE. These terms shall constitute an offer which shall expire and earnest money shall be returned, unless this offer is accepted on or before 12/07/2014, at 9 am, or withdrawn in writing prior to acceptance." We signed the papers on 12/06/2014 but the seller did not sign until 12/10/2014. We had an inspection done on the property and discovered many repairs and construction issues. Since the seller did not sign the papers on the due date stated in the contract, can we back out of the contract and get our earnest money back?


Asked on 12/15/14, 6:58 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Henry Repay Law Offices of Henry Repay

If there is a way to back out using the inspection provision in the contract, your closing attorney should be addressing your concerns through that provision. In addition or instead, your attorney can try to use the failure of the sellers to have accepted the offer while it was open. The issue I see is, if I were representing the sellers, I would suggest that your actions in moving forward with the inspection ratified the contract (in other words, you can't have it both ways, acting on the contract, but then suggesting that a contract was never formed). I am not saying how that would turn out considering the specifics of your transaction. You would end up getting into arguments that are far too involved to address within the scope of a website like this.

Have you missed the deadlines on the inspection provisions? It seems to me with the dates you mention that you should be able to work with the inspection terms.

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Answered on 12/15/14, 7:51 am


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