What are my legal options in this situation? Bank has not delivered house to me and contract has expired.

[Stephen N.]

Long story short.... I have a contract to buy a REO for $24k. the contract has been signed and it has been extended once.

Well the deadline for the extension was today and there was no closing and the seller did not sign another extension.

The reason the deal hasn't closed is not because of me. I even wired the $24k to the title company for the closing. the person holding up the closing is the law firm who handled the foreclosure. Apparently they will not approve the sale of the house because there is an old mortgage on the property that was never cancelled. Normally something like that would be easy to take care of but apparently there have been some complications in getting this done.

Here is the kicker. The title company has already said they will write the title insurance on the property. So the title company is ready to go. I'm ready to go. there is nothing that should keep this home from being sold to me.

Yet here I am today with an expired contract and I don't know what to do. I'm really ticked off about this. What are my legal options here? Can't I sue the seller if he refuses to sell the house to me? we have a contract. or at least we had one.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Jon Holdman]

Read your contract. I doubt you have any legal options. If the contract states you have the remedy of "specific performance", then you could sue. Even then, I suspect you have a weak case because there's likely a clause in your contract or the numerous addendums that states there's no deal if the bank can't deliver a marketable title. Even though you think they can, they think they can't, so no deal. However, I suspect your contract actually doesn't even allow specific performance. It probably says if the deal can't close your only remedy is the return of your earnest money.

Welcome to the fun world of buying REOs.

Get your money back from the title company. This could take months, and there's absolutely no need to have the money just setting there.