Gents, I'm scratching my head with this one, I'm appealing to the wisdom of the SVT gods...
Back in the spring of 2020, we sold our home. It was listed with the option of buying with 4 acres or 10. The land split was not to be completed until the buyer made their decision. This was supposed to be standard and not an issue.
The realtor firm represented both parties and a deal was struck for the house with 4 acres. Before closing, I forwarded the updated parcel description to our realtor and we closed on the house for 395k minus the land. This was a significant discount from the 435k asking but Covid was upon us and nobody knew what would happen next.
Several months later, I checked the county map and found that the deal went through for the entire 10 acres. Furthermore, the buyer's agent did not work with the appraiser and his bank that the sale was for 4 acres, not 10 acres. The buyer's bank wanted 20 k to satisfy the LTV requirements before releasing the land which is worth about 75k. The house reappraised for 379k, so 16k should have got the deal done.
Initially, the realtor firm was going to take care of all expenses but backed out. The buyer was working with us, but became irate and started to claim the land was his to neighbors. We filed a lawsuit, the discovery questions came back with the buyer accusing us of forging the property map in the purchase agreement (the 6 acres were crossed out and initialed). Also, they claimed the deal was always for 10 acres. We have lots of e-mails between him and I when he initially was trying to get the back to release the land and throughout it was clear that he didn't buy it.
It's 35k to go to court and hopefully win a recision action (we get the house back and hopefully 24k commission back from the realtor).
A settlement agreement was struck. The buyer insisted he must be paid 27.5k for his time and expense and would not budge. The realtor kicked in 15k and we also added 12.5 to the escrow. There is no confidentiality agreement as part of it.
In the beginning, prior to attorneys being involved my neighbor took the hay off the land as it was just a paperwork error. Afterward, the buyer claimed we stole the hay and now they'll release us from "trespassing and a felony" in exchange for the deal. It's now 18 months later and no crime has been reported to the sheriff's office.
Now it's been 3 months and the deal still isn't done. Our lawyer insisted there can be no deadlines and now I find out the buyer will be paid at closing in full before the land is transferred back rightfully to us. His attorney will do things like wait 5 weeks to respond to e-mails, I'm really starting to lose my patience here.
Since then, the buyer has pulled a permit to build a shop on his side so he obviously plans on staying and winning.
Our attorney has an agreement with us that from the moment the agreement is signed until we have the land back in our hands our fees are capped at $1000. At this point, I'm about $8000 in legal fees into this, so we'll be out a total of 20.5k to get our land back.
Option 1, stick with the summary agreement. Our attorney insists we stay with this option, said I have trust issues and I do at this point. Honestly, I'm kinda pissed our attorney got us this bad of a deal and can't get it done in a timely manner.
Once the land is back if ever, install no trespassing signs and a car horn that honks at 2 am (no neighbors close by but him). Maybe put up a sign for him and his wife to read along the busy highway.
Option 2, file the lawsuit (another 30k) and potentially lose (I don't know how) but not have to pay the buyer a dime and have him profit at our expense.
What would you do?
Back in the spring of 2020, we sold our home. It was listed with the option of buying with 4 acres or 10. The land split was not to be completed until the buyer made their decision. This was supposed to be standard and not an issue.
The realtor firm represented both parties and a deal was struck for the house with 4 acres. Before closing, I forwarded the updated parcel description to our realtor and we closed on the house for 395k minus the land. This was a significant discount from the 435k asking but Covid was upon us and nobody knew what would happen next.
Several months later, I checked the county map and found that the deal went through for the entire 10 acres. Furthermore, the buyer's agent did not work with the appraiser and his bank that the sale was for 4 acres, not 10 acres. The buyer's bank wanted 20 k to satisfy the LTV requirements before releasing the land which is worth about 75k. The house reappraised for 379k, so 16k should have got the deal done.
Initially, the realtor firm was going to take care of all expenses but backed out. The buyer was working with us, but became irate and started to claim the land was his to neighbors. We filed a lawsuit, the discovery questions came back with the buyer accusing us of forging the property map in the purchase agreement (the 6 acres were crossed out and initialed). Also, they claimed the deal was always for 10 acres. We have lots of e-mails between him and I when he initially was trying to get the back to release the land and throughout it was clear that he didn't buy it.
It's 35k to go to court and hopefully win a recision action (we get the house back and hopefully 24k commission back from the realtor).
A settlement agreement was struck. The buyer insisted he must be paid 27.5k for his time and expense and would not budge. The realtor kicked in 15k and we also added 12.5 to the escrow. There is no confidentiality agreement as part of it.
In the beginning, prior to attorneys being involved my neighbor took the hay off the land as it was just a paperwork error. Afterward, the buyer claimed we stole the hay and now they'll release us from "trespassing and a felony" in exchange for the deal. It's now 18 months later and no crime has been reported to the sheriff's office.
Now it's been 3 months and the deal still isn't done. Our lawyer insisted there can be no deadlines and now I find out the buyer will be paid at closing in full before the land is transferred back rightfully to us. His attorney will do things like wait 5 weeks to respond to e-mails, I'm really starting to lose my patience here.
Since then, the buyer has pulled a permit to build a shop on his side so he obviously plans on staying and winning.
Our attorney has an agreement with us that from the moment the agreement is signed until we have the land back in our hands our fees are capped at $1000. At this point, I'm about $8000 in legal fees into this, so we'll be out a total of 20.5k to get our land back.
Option 1, stick with the summary agreement. Our attorney insists we stay with this option, said I have trust issues and I do at this point. Honestly, I'm kinda pissed our attorney got us this bad of a deal and can't get it done in a timely manner.
Once the land is back if ever, install no trespassing signs and a car horn that honks at 2 am (no neighbors close by but him). Maybe put up a sign for him and his wife to read along the busy highway.
Option 2, file the lawsuit (another 30k) and potentially lose (I don't know how) but not have to pay the buyer a dime and have him profit at our expense.
What would you do?
