Being held hostage by a buyer!!!!

[reallytrying]

Our house was on the market and under contract with the contingency that we had to find a house to move to. We were supposed to settle on September 7, but the contingency didn't expire until September 28. We didn't go to settlement and didn't agree on a new settlement date. We told the agents that we would not sell the house if we didn't find a house to buy. Well, the 7 & the 28th came & went. We found nothing (and sold nothing). Then we decided not to sell at all.

Now, the buyer won't sign the release unless we pay for his inspection & appraisal ($1000). The buyer has already bought and moved into a house, but still refuses to sign the release. And the deposit is still being held (or so we've been told by his agent).

What can we do here? We don't have the freedom to anything with our property, do we? Isn't that infringing on our rights of ownership? What happens if we try to put the house back on the market? Has anyone else been in this situation or have any suggestions for us?

 

[freebird]

Originally posted by reallytrying
Our house was on the market and under contract with the contingency that we had to find a house to move to. We were supposed to settle on September 7, but the contingency didn't expire until September 28. We didn't go to settlement and didn't agree on a new settlement date. We told the agents that we would not sell the house if we didn't find a house to buy. Well, the 7 & the 28th came & went. We found nothing (and sold nothing). Then we decided not to sell at all.

Now, the buyer won't sign the release unless we pay for his inspection & appraisal ($1000). The buyer has already bought and moved into a house, but still refuses to sign the release. And the deposit is still being held (or so we've been told by his agent).

What can we do here? We don't have the freedom to anything with our property, do we? Isn't that infringing on our rights of ownership? What happens if we try to put the house back on the market? Has anyone else been in this situation or have any suggestions for us?

The simple answer is, what does your contract say? If the contract expires at a certain date, then you don't have to do anything and the buyer can waste his money trying to sue you. I might give notice to the buyer of the expiration of the contract (if this is the case) about the situation.