In real estate transactions, you must be diligent in every document you sign. Konowitz & Greenberg recently settled a lawsuit in which the buyer signed a pre-printed Contract to Purchase form for a piece of commercial real estate. The contract identified the property and set forth a purchase price and sale date. The contract also required the parties to enter into a mutually acceptable purchase and sale agreement. The Contract to Purchase was accepted and signed by the seller. Prior to signing a purchase and sale agreement, the seller notified the buyer that they were no longer interested in selling the property, forcing the buyer to file suit to enjoin the seller from selling the property to anyone else and obtain an order forcing the seller to complete the sale. The law in this area is clear. One cannot simply include language in an offer to purchase stating that the offer is subject to a purchase and sale agreement, particularly when other language in the document suggests that the parties intend an offer to be binding, and have confidence that, if no purchase and sale agreement is signed, then the deal is off. The landmark case in this area is McCarthy v. Tobin. Read the rest of this entry »