Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

Re: wrong address

You asked if a contract was binding if an address on the document was incorrect.

Generally, a contract is the agreement of two or more parties to be bound for the performance of one or more acts. In order to valid an agreement needs to be entered by persons who have the capacity to be bound, it needs to have substance either in the form of property or action required and it requires consideration. In certain cases it also needs to be a written instrument and often must be signed by "the party to be charged." In other words, the party who is being sued for a breach must have signed the contract in order to be held the contract.

Wikipedia has a much more thorough explanation of contracts.

In your question you noted that there was an error in one of the addresses specified in the contract and question whether that would invalidate the contract. No, it won't invalidate the contract. If it is a material error that goes to the substance of the contract a non-breaching party could still prove the intent to be bound of the breaching party. Otherwise it is of informational value and would be seen as what we call a scriveners error. Sometimes such errors are gross and cause lawyers to spend tremendous amounts of time and money fighting about the error in disputes. Most of the time though such errors are corrected simply in formal or informal ways.

There is a caveat, there's always a caveat. If the contract were for the sale of property and if that address was the only description of the property being sold and neither party had the rights to sell the property mistakenly identified then the contract might not be enforceable. But most states require that a contract for the sale of property include an accurate legal description of the property to be sold to create a proper deed of sale. The legal description includes the metes and bound laid out by a survey of the property and may be taken from a previous deed or set out by a new survey.

So after giving you way more information than you hoped for I hope you find the answer you sought. If I can be of assistance in this or any other matter I would be happy to speak with you. And don't forget to refer me to anyone that you know.

Regards,

Roger Traversa

email: [email protected]