Should I get a lawyer involved? Seller (bank) wants to cancel

[Kevin Trumbull]

I'll try to be brief, and I'm not looking for legal advice, more of a 'what would you do in this situation' thing.

I put an offer on a new primary residence in Oregon in November (I live in California currently), which is a foreclosure owned by a bank.  Title company does a search, finds there is still a 2nd lien on the property.  After some digging, turns out the bank didn't foreclose properly, they failed to notify the 2nd lienholder, they said they'll need to do a 'strict foreclosure' and that will take 60-90 days.  OK fine, that sucks but we really want the house.

My realtor submits the contract extension, the bank comes back to say they won't extend the contract, they asked me to cancel the contract while they work on clearing the title, and they said I could resubmit my offer (no guarantee they'll accept it then).

My realtor looks over the contract in detail and he doesn't think the bank can actually back out of the contract, and he said I might want to talk to a lawyer to see what options I may have.

We really really want this house, and are willing to stay under contract for as long as it takes, but the bank seems to want to back out.  Nobody involved can understand why the bank would want to back out of the contract (a guaranteed sale)... only thing I can think of is they no longer like my offer and want to try to get something better.

Has anybody run in to this situation before?  Anybody have any advice?  I don't want to incur a ton of legal fees just to acquire this house.  What outcome might I expect from the legal route?  All I want is to buy the house at the price/terms we negotiated.

[Jill Schuster]

Please do not construe this in any way as trying to interfere with your relationship with your agent. I have run into similar issues with Sellers and a letter from an attorney saying that you intend to compel performance works well with regular Sellers who don't have a right to back out. But, for a bank and especially in the situation this contract is in where they can't cure the cloud on title all that easily, it may be difficult to enforce the contract. If you want the extension, you should consult an attorney to review the contract (was it the standard Oregon form? or the bank's form?) and see if you have a leg to stand on. 

Jill Schuster, Principal Broker

REMAX Integrity - Corvallis, OR