Sale of house pending due to Hurricane Irma

[Joe Garvin]

Hello BP Community,

We live in Florida, in the direct path of Hurricane Irma. In early August, we moved 2 hours north into St. Lucie County (still in the path) and have a contract to sell our house in South Florida. We were supposed to close Sept 7th but the buyers’ insurance and Title Company put the brakes on the sale until after Irma passes. If this storm is as bad as predicted I can’t see the sale happening or even the market recovering for months if not years.

Has anyone dealt with this type of a scenario with the sale of a property during or after a natural disaster. In our contract in Section 18 sub section (g) Force Majeure and sub section (m) Risk of Loss seem to offer the most guidance. Can anyone can offer advice on how to navigate this difficult scenario so we can have a plan in place.

Our new home and a vacation rental on Hutchinson Island are all in the direct path of this massive storm. Thankfully all are insured but any advice the BP Community can offer to guide us in getting ourselves organized would be a great help. My mind is so overloaded I am not thinking clearly.

Kind regards,

Joe Garvin

[Michael Plante]

I'm surprised by all the answers 

It is very common to delay closing when there is a hurricane in the area of the property even if you are closing 1000 miles away. 

Think about it what if you close and it turns out the house is destoyed   

Who is to say it was destroyed before or after the closing.   Which insurance company needs to pay, buyers or sellers. 

Just imagine the law suits

I just remembered the one that DID happen for us today was just someone paying us off on a mortgage we were holding.   

So the property was already in their name.  So I guess not technically a closing just a nice wire into our bank account.