Closing on my home (need advice)

My home has been in contract ready to close but the hurricane hit and we have been doing fixing up, and inspections that were requested by the buyer. I have had a foundation inspector, mold, plumber and electrician come in and inspect my home at my expense. Now my attorney has notified us that they are ready to close next week and the house that we are in contract with is not ready for us to move in.
I have told my attorney that I am not ready to move and awaiting to hear back from the
buyers attorney.
At this point what can happen if I refuse to close at the time they want to ?

TIA

Re: Closing on my home (need advice)

If your buyers rate expires you may be forced to close and then pay them rent per day that you are still in the house. If it goes past a certain date that rate may be increased.

When we moved this last time this happened to us. Our buyers were being really difficult and one day they could close in April and then they pushed it back to March. We ended up closing on March30, and from day one paid them $90 per day after 2 weeks the rate was going to increase to $180 a day. We ended up closing on our new house 4/13.

Good Luck and I know the whole process can be very stressful.

Re: Closing on my home (need advice)

You should definitely talk to your attorney about your options, since this is a legal question.

Hopefully, the buyers will agree to give you more time, and it's a moot issue. Often these things can be worked out amicably.

But what did your contract say re: closing? What was the contemplated date of closing - it's usually an "on or about" date (which is usually construed as closing in the window between the stated date and 30 days after). Was the contract amended to allow for more time given the hurricane and its aftermath?

If you are refusing to close according to the time period set forth in the contract, the buyers could have their attorney send a "time is of the essence" letter demanding you close within a reasonable time period (e.g., 30 days).

If you refuse to do so, and you are in breach of the contract, you could lose the buyer (they could back out and get their deposit back) or they could sue you for specific performance of the contract (which is probably not a very practical solution, as a lawsuit would take awhile to be resolved.)

What was discussed when the buyer's offer was negotiated? Did you make it known that you wouldn't close until your new home was ready for you to go to, or did you plan on staying somewhere else in the interim? It's very rare for people to be able to line up their closings, in my experience, so that they can go from one house to their next house, without having to do a short stay with family, a short term rental, a hotel, or something. Do the buyers need to be in the house soon for a specific reason? Do you know when your new house will be ready?

The most practical thing would be to just get them to agree to wait, but I would think they would want to know when you will be in a position to close (instead of just having an open-ended extension). If they need to extend their rate lock, I think it's only fair for you to reimburse them for that if they are prepared to close and you are not. If that can't be done, as the pp said, maybe you can just close and retain possession, essentially renting the house back from them. But some attorneys are really against that, and it's definitely preferable to give possession at closing when possible.

Good luck!