Bank blocks sale then backs down, buyer claims
A HOUSE HUNTER is claiming victory over a bank in a battle over a stalled home sale.
John Moser, of Masterton, found himself in a legal battle with ASB Bank when, he says, it told the vendors the offer they had accepted for their home was ‘‘too low’’ and they should back out of the deal.
The vendors of the threebedroom home in Richmond Rd, Carterton, accepted Mr Moser’s $170,000 offer on March 22. Both parties signed a sale-and-purchase agreement and Mr Moser paid a 10 per cent deposit.
Mr Moser and his lawyer, Peter Richardson, of Upper Hutt Law, said this agreement contained no clause permitting the vendors to back out once it was signed, and it was conditional only on Mr Moser completing certain tasks, such as a building inspection, which he did.
But, according to Mr Moser, the selling agent from Harcourts then told him the vendors’ mortgageholder, ASB, instructed the vendors to withdraw from the agreement because his offer was too low and would not cover the vendors’ debt.
On April 3, Mr Moser received a letter from the vendors’ lawyer that said ASB had an ‘‘objection to the sale’’ and therefore the vendors would not be able to give clear title to the property.
The letter added that, if Mr Moser did not increase or withdraw his offer, the vendors would ‘‘walk away from the contract’’, and he could seek redress through the courts if he wished.
He raised his offer to $180,000 to break the three-month stalemate, but says the bank threatened legal action if he did not meet a new backup offer price of $189,000.
But last Friday, after months of wrangling, the bank decided to accept $180,000, and Mr Moser is claiming victory.
‘‘When you’ve got a gut feeling that you’re right, you’ve just got to hold out and to hell with the costs,’’ he said.
After a recent separation, he was looking forward to moving out of his rented room near Masterton and getting stability for his three children, Millie, 13, Jack, 10, and George, 5.
He aimed to pick a settlement date convenient to him. He said the house needed insulation work, and he might not look to move in until after winter.
The battle had been worth it, despite legal costs and stress on his work and family life, because he was in the right, he said.
‘‘If you stand up, and are prepared to put yourself on the line,