What are my legal obligations regarding a purchase contract?
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What are my legal obligations regarding a purchase contract?
We signed a purchase contract to purchase a home, during the inspection many items were found that needed to be address in order for the home to be insurable. Our realtor provided an addendum saying we would continue with the purchase provided a licensed insured contractor was hired to replace the roof, repair some plumbing issues. Once we were notified the repairs were completed I flew in to FL to see the repaired property. The roof was uneven, had many nail pops and had other issues that were not
Asked on August 2, 2017 under Real Estate Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
There is no definite answer, because if this goes to litigation (i.e. to court), it will come down to how a judge views the quality and completeness of the repairs. You do not have a right to perfect work; only to commercially acceptable. You obviously feel the work is not commercially or professionally acceptable, and based on what you write, there is reason for you to think that; if you were to sue to get your deposit or the seller were to sue to enforce the contract against you, if the judge agrees with you, you should be allowed out of the contract or granted other compensation (e.g. a judicial order to correct the work within a reasonable time frame). But if a judge were to disagree with you and consider the work was done "good enough," you would be held to the contract. While you appear to have some facts on your side, because there is an element of subjectivity to this--i.e. what is commercially, etc. acceptable--you could lose. You have stated a reasonable, but not guaranteed, case for getting out of the contract.
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