Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland
Buyer requests release from house contract
After a home inspection, we the buyers have requested the seller in writing 8/9 to have a Structural Eng. check for a possible OSB problem with the house, as the inspector reported. Seller responded /15 by crossing out our entire request and added a statement where they will provide an existing home buyer warranty.We din’t agree to this solution /20. The only writing answer we received from the sellers was an addendum date 23 where they want us to sign an agreement to initiate a claim with their home warranty company and that the issue will be resolve after settlement. A day later, we asked that everything should be done previously to settlement and we never got an answer back.We are supposed to close this coming /30, and until now this issue has not been result. As a result we decided to terminate the contract, but now they want to force us to go to settlement. They argued that we didn’t respond on time according to the inspection contingency where we have 3 days to respond and we did it 5 days. At that moment, we were out of town and our agent told us that sellers agree. We are not satisfied with the way they want to resolve this very important structural issue. Now they want to force us to take the home.Can they do that?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Buyer requests release from house contract
It's not clear where you left things following the home inspection. However, you should review your contract, as its language should spell out whether or not you terminated the contract in a timely manner. It's also not clear how the agent got his information that the sellers agreed to something you proposed (repairs? a credit?), but both the contract and your interests dictate that he have requested the sellers position in a writing which could have then been incorperated into the contract.
Re: Buyer requests release from house contract
There's no easy way to answer your question without reviewing all of the documentation, but it sounds as if you're right to be skeptical about the purchase. As a general proposition, it is very difficult to compel someone to purchase a property, but backing out of the deal may not be without consequences. It is probably worth consulting with an attorney (who will want to look at all of the documents) as soon as possible.
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