Note holder not allowing sellers to sell

[Leah Hill]

Hey all!

Happy Saturday! We are under contract on an investment property with a closing in two weeks. However, we were informed today that our closing has to be pushed off to a far-off future date (rate will no longer be locked and basically will have to do the financing process again) due to an issue we haven't run into before, but seems simply not legal to us, so we hope we can get some assistance.

We only know as much as we have been told, so here we go... the home we are under contract for was sold to the current owners via an owner carry, so the note is held by a private individual (the owner before the current owners). The individual is currently traveling across Alaska with no set date on when he will return and does not have the note on him. It was proposed that he obtain a bond in lieu of the note so that we could move ahead with our current closing date. However, the individual is refusing to do so because he would have to provide his ss number to the bond company and is not willing to have a family member get the note from his home.

Both agents have basically told us that we are S.O.L. and are at his discretion for when he chooses to return and we can then close. However, from our research, it seems that we do not need him to even close and most of all this seems illegal on his end. Theoretically, the current owners are being forced to pay the individual interest, because he is not allowing them to close on the sale of the property.

None of this was disclosed to us prior to going under contract.  Has anyone encountered this before or have any advice?