I am in a Lease for Deed contract on my house . If I cant afford the house anymore can I get out of the contract and not be legally responsible
Question Details: Iam in a lease for deed contract I cant afford anymore the purchase price is 152,000 and our house payments are around 1696.00 . If I vacate the property and sign it back to them will I still be resposible for the full house amount of the 152,000 ?
What does your contract stipulate in the event of default? Most of the contracts for deed I have seen allow the buyer to terminate the purchase part of the sale, but allow the seller to keep the amounts paid as liquidated damages. Some contracts convert the sale to a pure lease agreement. If your contract does not contain these clauses, a seller can sue for specific performance, although I rarely see this, for the simple reason that the buyer in these cases has no funds. If you want me to review your contract and look into this, email me at sean@roadlawyer.net.
Sean Santoro/Licensed in KS and MO
That's going to depend on how your contract is written up. If it was at all properly prepared, there should be a paragraph or section in there that deals with "buyer default" or something like that.
Whatever the contract says, I'd be very surprised if you could be held liable for the full purchase price, because that would unjustly enrich the seller. It's more likely that you can probably just walk away, which is bad enough, since I'd guess that about a third of what you've paid is above the market rent for the property and was your "investment," and that will be gone.
