[WSBARP] Vacant Land Purchase & Sale Agreement Form 25 Question re:lack of buyer remedies

[Kary Krismer]

There are no liquidated damage provisions in any of the various statewide P&S agreements that come to mind (assuming you don’t consider return of earnest money liquidated damages, which is what some bank contracts provide).  They all just rely on whatever the common law remedies are.  And yes, specific performance can be one of the remedies.

This is more and more of a problem lately because sellers are reportedly breaching more after agreeing to sell their homes due to the horrible buyer’s market they discover.  I haven’t personally been involved in any of those situations as an agent, but I have heard of a couple situations where they rely on things like bad legal descriptions to give them an out (which I guess technically isn’t a breach).  Plus, there’s this video from Washington Realtors a couple of months ago.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BqDeMgMx1k 

Note:  The best remedy or persuasion, might be the seller’s liability for a commission (both listing and selling side) as well as attorney fees if they lose.

Kary L. Krismer
John L. Scott/KMS Renton
206 723-2148

From: Schmidt & Yee
Sent: Monday, July 3, 2017 8:39 PM
To: wsbarp at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBARP] Vacant Land Purchase & Sale Agreement Form 25 Question re:lack of buyer remedies

Hello -
I am looking for some insight or direction with regard to the total lack of buyer remedies in the Washington Form 25 Vacant Land Purchase & Sale Agreement.  There undoubtedly would be situations where a seller would breach the sale agreement (perhaps back out of a sale), but the form is void of remedies for the buyer.  Is the buyer left with no remedies? Are agents or lawyers writing in remedies for buyer on addendums? Or does buyer just have to look to case law for remedies and, if so, would the buyer be entitled to specific performance?  The forms were all updated in February this year and I can find old case law addressing provisions in old forms, but nothing about this new form (nor any treatises discussing this change.
 
Has anyone had to deal with this issue yet?  Thank you.
Pam Yee
Schmidt & Yee, PC
503-642-7641

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