What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania
I'm having a problem with my purchase in Pennsylvania. My boyfriend and I signed a standard agreement of sale for the purchase of real estate. It is a tenant-occupied property, and they are under a verbal lease. The seller stated that he has to give the tenant a 30 day notice, and would not do this until all of our buyer contingencies were met. The only contingencies on the contract that we were to complete was a home inspection, pest inspection, and a mortgage financing contingency. We applied for a mortgage 4 business days after recieving the fully ratified contract. The seller wanted to wait to recieve the mortgage commitment letter before giving notice to the tenant. We got our mortgage commitment letter back with conditions on it that had to be taken care of before settlement in order to secure the financing. We have cleared all of the conditions we can clear without having a set date for settlement. I work for a settlement company in PA, so we have an attorney on hand. The seller is now wanting us to sign an "Agreement of Sale Release" because he claims that we will not acknowledge the lease and accept the property with a tenant in it. We cannot do this because of the type of loan we are applying for, first of all, and I don't feel we should be given the responsibility of someone else's tenant for less than fair market rent in the first place. I have talked to our attorney at hand, and he told me that we are well within our rights, and have not been "non-compliant with Section 18A, Section 2" of the Agreement of Sale. We allowed the seller to wait for the satisfactory appraisal to come back even though this was not a contingency of the contract. We do not want to release this seller, because then we will only get our deposit money back, and not any damages. (We've already spent $650 in inspections and appraisal fees.) Should we threaten to file suit if he breaches the contract? Is he currently in breach of the contract? Our contract specifically states that any existing leases that are to be acknowledged by us, the buyers, are to be acknowledged by initialing a copy of the lease at the execution of the agreement of sale. Since we did not recieve a copy of any such leases, are we right in assuming we would recieve the property vacant? Can the seller back out of this deal without us agreeing to it? Will he be responsible for our fees that we have incurred thus far?
How good is a verbal month-to-month lease in Pennsylvania and how much notice is actually required to be given to the tenant under such a lease?
This has become a complicated situation, which was black and white when we wrote the contract. Oh, and each party (buyer and seller) have seperate real estate agents working for them. (Meaning we have our own, and he has his own.)
How much of an aggervation and headache is it to file suit for damages in PA?
Thank you for all your help and advice in advance.
Krystle, in complicated PA
I'm having a problem with my purchase in Pennsylvania. My boyfriend and I signed a standard agreement of sale for the purchase of real estate. It is a tenant-occupied property, and they are under a verbal lease. The seller stated that he has to give the tenant a 30 day notice, and would not do this until all of our buyer contingencies were met. The only contingencies on the contract that we were to complete was a home inspection, pest inspection, and a mortgage financing contingency. We applied for a mortgage 4 business days after recieving the fully ratified contract. The seller wanted to wait to recieve the mortgage commitment letter before giving notice to the tenant. We got our mortgage commitment letter back with conditions on it that had to be taken care of before settlement in order to secure the financing. We have cleared all of the conditions we can clear without having a set date for settlement. I work for a settlement company in PA, so we have an attorney on hand. The seller is now wanting us to sign an "Agreement of Sale Release" because he claims that we will not acknowledge the lease and accept the property with a tenant in it. We cannot do this because of the type of loan we are applying for, first of all, and I don't feel we should be given the responsibility of someone else's tenant for less than fair market rent in the first place. I have talked to our attorney at hand, and he told me that we are well within our rights, and have not been "non-compliant with Section 18A, Section 2" of the Agreement of Sale. We allowed the seller to wait for the satisfactory appraisal to come back even though this was not a contingency of the contract. We do not want to release this seller, because then we will only get our deposit money back, and not any damages. (We've already spent $650 in inspections and appraisal fees.) Should we threaten to file suit if he breaches the contract? Is he currently in breach of the contract? Our contract specifically states that any existing leases that are to be acknowledged by us, the buyers, are to be acknowledged by initialing a copy of the lease at the execution of the agreement of sale. Since we did not recieve a copy of any such leases, are we right in assuming we would recieve the property vacant? Can the seller back out of this deal without us agreeing to it? Will he be responsible for our fees that we have incurred thus far?
How good is a verbal month-to-month lease in Pennsylvania and how much notice is actually required to be given to the tenant under such a lease?
This has become a complicated situation, which was black and white when we wrote the contract. Oh, and each party (buyer and seller) have seperate real estate agents working for them. (Meaning we have our own, and he has his own.)
How much of an aggervation and headache is it to file suit for damages in PA?
Thank you for all your help and advice in advance.
Krystle, in complicated PA
