vendor reneging on signed contract

D

decko

Registered User
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hi after spending money on engineers report and buying at auction the vendor (there were 2 of them ) is claiming no valid contract as only one of them signed and neither did their solicitor or auctioneer - my solicitor has gone to a barrister -- anyone any experience of this ? - should my solictor have insisted both vendors' sign ?

any help appreciated
 
As far as I know when something is bought at auction, the contract is in place when the hammer falls.
 
My advice is walk away and forget about Barristers. You are throwing good money away at this stage.
 
I had this with a private treaty house. We signed contracts then a dispute arose within the party selling.
There's nothing you can do, you can't force people to sell if they don't want to sell it to you. A hundred and one reasons could have come up. It's not just a contractual thing at the auction, if they wanted to make it happen they would.

We had paid for a survey and a solicitor. The solicitor only charged us a couple of hundred euro with a kind of verbal agreement we'd use them again for the next house.
 
thanks sadie -- did you actually exchange signed contracts ? if so i would have thought you can go specific performance -- my issue is that i can only go after 50% of the house (unless counsel says nail them for bad faith etc)
 
decko said:
thanks sadie -- did you actually exchange signed contracts ? if so i would have thought you can go specific performance -- my issue is that i can only go after 50% of the house (unless counsel says nail them for bad faith etc)
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Why would you want to go down this road? It doesn't sound like you have any sort of case even for 50% of the property as the contracts were not correctly executed. You can go to court and argue your case but is the house really worth the hassle and thousands of euro in legal fees?
 

i guess the legal question is whether in law the signing of one of the 2 owners gives me recourse
 
And I would say that if it can be proved that the intent to dispose of the property, then you might have a fairly strong case. Saying that there are a number of other parties whose representation would be required. You'd be seeking a court to determine an opinion of an Estate Agent !!
 


that would be easy to obtain ... anyone know if all owners must sign to sell property ?
 
Of course they must .... if they all have a share in the ownership.

I reckon you should just take it on the chin and move on.
 
Maybe there was a Power of Attorney issued to the other party. This information would only become available on discovery between the lagal pros though.
 
I am worried about your solicitor. I don't know the answer to this question, but I would have thought that a solicitor should be able to advise without consulting a barrister unless there is something very odd in this which you have not told us. However, if the solicitor has decided that there is nothing you can do, then he might as well run it by a barrister for a second opinion.

as only one of them signed and neither did their solicitor or auctioneer
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Neither the solicitor nor the auctioneer is a party to the contract, so they would not sign.

The normal process is

The vendor's solicitors send you the contract.
You sign it and return it to them
They sign it and return a copy to you.

Your solicitor should have noted that the contract was not signed by both owners, but if he had noticed, what could he have done? Simply sent the contracts back to be signed, so you have not lost anything by their oversight.
 


Hi Brendan thanks

given it was an auction apperantly its not unusual for the vendor solicitor to have power of attorney - (if vendor wasnt present and it was sold under the hammer they would have needed it i suspect)

she (solicitor) waffled something about getting specific performance against one co owner

it certainly goes against the common view that sales at auctions are binding if i cant enforce
 
Did you buy it at an auction?

sold after auction not under a hammer
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Does this not make it a normal private treaty sale?

I am not a solicitor, so I just don't know.

she (solicitor) waffled something
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If your solicitor is "waffling", it sounds as if you need a new solicitor.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Did you buy it at an auction?



Does this not make it a normal private treaty sale?

I am not a solicitor, so I just don't know.



If your solicitor is "waffling", it sounds as if you need a new solicitor.
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it was after the auction as reserve wasnt met ( I was highest and only bidder)-- but it wasnt a private treaty sale as I signed a binding contract and paid a 10% deposit - from what I know with private treaty sale signed contracts only happen a few weeks later
 
From what I read further of this the more I believe you have a case. Try contacting the IAVI (Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute). They might well be able to offer you an opinion.
 
decko said:
it certainly goes against the common view that sales at auctions are binding if i cant enforce
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But you didn't buy at auction. You bought after the auction so it will be those rules that apply. So did you have a binding contract is the issue. Only one of the two vendor's signed. If it's the case that two vendor's should have signed then your solicitor should have told you this and they are at fault for not pointing this out to you. It is possible they didn't know there were two vendors as this all seems to have happened after an auction and not with the normal back and forth documentation between solicitors.

Another way to look at is if you wanted to pull out now despite having signed and handed over a deposit would you be able to based on the fact that the contract is seemingly not valid because only one vendor signed.

Personally cannot see how a property jointly owned can be sold if one party only signs a contact.

Hope you've asked your solicitor how much you'll have to pay him and also hope you've asked how much a barrister will cost as they don't come cheap. So far you were only out the cost of an engineer's report but costs are mounting without it looking like you will get satisfaction. You'll always find another property. There are plenty of them.
 

Was the auctioneer actually involved i.e. did he get commission for the transaction?
 
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