Skip to main content

Ann Arbor Real Estate Blog

Blog about Ann Arbor and Saline Michigan

Michigan Association of Realtors Hotline Questions

Michigan Association of Realtors Hot Line Questions

Lodi Country Estate We are fortunate in the State of Michigan and if you are a licensed Realtor you can call with questions to the legal hotline.

The MAR Legal Hotline is operated six hours per day (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.), five days a week, Monday through Friday. This makes the MAR Legal Hotline available to members approximately 250 work days a year. Recognized holidays are excluded. If the Legal Hotline is busy, an answering machine will take your call. Calls are returned within 24 hours, usually during the same day.

The MAR Legal Hotline is staffed solely by a qualified attorney from the law firm of McClelland and Anderson, L.L.P. who can provide information on real estate law and related matters from a Michigan law firm. No paralegals or other types of administrative assistants are used.

Questions

I am going to be posting some of the questions called into the hotline for your information. There is a lot of really good information that is helpful for people buying and selling a home in the Ann Arbor area. 

Lodi Country Estates Question One

My
 Sellers 
have 
a 
purchase 
agreement 
signed
 with
 Buyer 
A.

Buyer B 
has
 now 
made 
an 
offer 
on 
the 
same 
property 
that 
the
 Sellers
 consider
to
 be 
a
 better
 offer.
Buyer
 A
 has
 proposed
 an
 amendment
 to
 his
 purchase
 agreement
 asking 
to 
purchase
s some
 of 
the 
Sellers’ 
outdoor 
lawn 
furniture
and 
pool
 equipment.
 The
 Sellers 
believe
 that 
the
 purchaser’s 
proposed
 amendment
 reopens
 the
 terms
 of
 the
 contract.
The
 Sellers
 want
 to
 rescind 
the purchase 
agreement 
with 
Buyer 
A
 and
 enter 
into 
a
 purchase
 agreement 
with 
Buyer 
B.

Does 
Buyer 
A’s 
proposal 
of 
an 
amendment 
to
 the 
existing 
purchase 
agreement
 reopen
 the
 contract 
such
 that
 my 
Sellers
may 
terminate 
it ?
What do you think?

Old West Side Answer from MAR Legal Hotline

NO. Some REALTORS®have the misconception that if an amendment to an existing contract is proposed and rejected, the purchase agreement is terminated. Ordinarily this is not the case.If a proposed amendment to a contract is rejected, the purchase agreement remains in full force and effect.

One party can neither change the terms of apurchase agreement nor terminate the agreement without the consent of all parties to the transaction.

Note… that the rules may be different when the proposed amendment relates to the removal of a contingency,depending on the wording of the contingency.

Suppose, for example,the purchase agreement providesthat if the buyer does not waive the inspection contingency in writing within 10 the purchase agreement shall be null and void.

On the 10th day,the buyer presents the seller with a proposed addendum in which the it asks the seller to agree to make certain repairs.

The seller may take the position that the purchase agreement is null and void, because the buyer did not waive the inspection contingency within the time frame set out in the purchase agreement.

Again,however, the effect of the buyer’s request that the seller make certain repairs depends on the wording of both the contingency and the proposed addendum and the timing of same.

Ann Arbor home buyers search

Thoughts?

%d bloggers like this: