There is no need for you to go the Court the agreement already stood cancelled by efflux of time and by giving notices to him. If you had given him notice stating the agreement is cancelled and he is free to suggest mode of refund of advance that will close the matter. If he wants to enforce the agreement let him go the Court. He has first deposit the full sale in the court and pay court fee and lawyer's fee then only his suit will be registered and even if a suit is filed the time to execute the sale deed has lost and it will dismissed. Dispute cannot be taken to police as the same is civil.
Buyer not honouring the sale agreement and not agreeing for cancellation
Hi Advocates, We (myself and my mother who is a senior citizen)( as a seller) had entered into an sale agreement for a plot with the buyer in Mar 2020,advance payment (10% of total sale amount) was made by him through cheque for the agreement and 3 months time was given for registration.In the sale agreement there there was no specific clause about what should be done if he does not pay within the scheduled timeframe. It ended on June 2020 but the buyer gave the reason of covid orally and asked to extend it for another 3 months (ie sep 2020). From then onwards he is just giving various reasons like loan did not approve or some legal issue etc.We have been following up regularly (whatsapp chats/calls).We gave a notice and he had given a written assurance that it will be done by Feb 10th 2021 or else it will be cancelled.But he has not honoured that and not ready to cancel also.In March 2021 it will be one year from the time of sale agreement. We are ready to pay back the the full amount given by him as advance and go for the cancellation.But he is not ready for that he has sent a letter stating loan is in progress and due to covid,still says he will buy but not given commitment date.Can we put the money in his account and issue a notice stating that its cancelled ? I have read in this forum that the cancellation should be done mutually but what happens in these scenarios. We have sent a legal notice through a lawyer (registered post) on 15th Feb and stated that we will file a legal suite if the registration in not done in 15 days from the date he recieves the letter and this will be the final notice. He has not given any reply till now and still says in the phone call that he is ready to buy the plot but due to non availabiltyof loan he is not able to. My mother who is a joint owner is a senior citizen,if it goes to court it will be very diffcult for her and to go through the court proceedings and we will not be sure how long does it take to get the judgement for these cases and we are in need for the money for some other commitments.Other People are ready to buy the this guy is not signing the cancellation agreement. is there any other way we can resolve this issue,we are ready to pay the full amount given by him as advance. Can we give a police complaint ? Please help us in this regard.
Asked 3 years ago in Property Law
Religion: Hindu
9 Answers
You can send notice to buyer that since he has failed to make balance agreement within period stipulated in contract agreement stands cancelled and advance paid is refunded
2) if buyer approaches court take the plea that you are willing to execute registered sale deed in his favour if he pays full amount mentioned in the contract
Dear Sir/Ma'am
Since the buyer didn't pay you the amount fixed in the contract, according to the provisions of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, you have all the rights to repudiate the contract on the grounds of breach of contract against the buyer. Since you're already willing to pay back the advance amount to him, he does not have any valid reason to approach the court against you. He himself had breached the contract; which gives you the right to cancel the contract at any point in time. The case will be in your favor if the necessary supporting pieces of evidence are provided with the arguments.
Thank You
You have stated to have issued a legal notice to the buyer but have not stated that whether if the sale agreement was done by a registered deed or it was an unregistered document.
If it was executed by an unregistered document, then you can communicate your decision to cancel the sale agreement owing to the failure of the buyer to perform his part of the contract despite giving him sufficient time.
Subsequently he can issue a public notice through any local newspaper stating that the said agreement of sale of the property in question has been cancelled owing to the failure on the part of the buyer to perform his part of contract.
This will confirm the cancellation of the sale agreement.
If sale agreement was executed by a registered deed,, after the expiration of the period or time granted in the legal notice to the buyer, you may have to file a suit for declaring the sale agreement as cancelled with a direction to the sub-registrar to register the cacnellation deed without the presence of the buyer since the buyer is not willing or not cooperating to cancel the sale agreement.
In the pleadings you may have to mention that the buyer is neither ready and willing to perform his part of contract nor he is cooperating to cancel the sale agreement by executing a cancellation deed before sub-registrar, hence the court to declare this sale agreement as cancelled for the reasons mentioned therein.
Without taking legal actions, it may not be possible for you to solve the issue in the absence of any cooperation from the buyer.
Thank you for all the answers,its an unregistered agreement.We have tried multiple times talking to him abuth this but the buyer is not ready to sign the cancellation agreement.My doubts are 1) Since the lawyer notice period of 15 days is also done now, Can we sell it to any other buyer showing all these documents(notice sent by us and lawyer notice),Will there be any complication if anyone else is ready to buy. 2)If the buyer goes to court,is it mandatory that we need to sell it only to him with the same price mentioned in the sale agreement done in March 2020 because the prices have increased now and considering the mental harassment we have been going through from the past one year because of him 3) What are the chances of the buyer winning the case in court in this scenario since we have all the original documents with us related to the plot,he has given in writing that he will do the registration within Feb 10th 2021 and we have sent the legal notice also. 4)if it goes to court, normally how long does it generally take to get the judgement? Is there no other way that we can cancel it without his signature? We had given him all the photocopy of the documents which he had asked for and the time also considering covid situation and now we feel cheated since he is not buying it nor letting it go.
Asked 3 years ago
Suit for specific performance takes 10 years to be disposed of
2) refund advance received inform seller that agreement stands cancelled then only sell to third party
3) court will not direct you to sell at same price as default is on part of buyer
- Since the agreement period is already expired , then you can legally terminate the agreement with the buyer after sending a legal notice.
- You should send a notice to the said buyer that the given period of registration has expired , and now the seller is not bond by the clauses of the said agreement , hence you are given one week time to come and execute the sale deed after paying the remaining balance amount.
- Further , if no response, then you can sell the said property to other buyer .
- Police has not power to entertain such issue.
- As per law, the buyer can file a suit for specific performance within a the period of 3 years from the date of agreement for getting order for registration or to refund the paid amount to you.
Dear Sir/Ma'am
It is advisable to send a legal notice to the buyer considering the termination of the contract since he didn't respond to any of the earlier notices and breached the contract by not paying the amount, you have the right to cancel the contract and sell the property to another party. But you should definitely pay him back the entire advance amount before entering into some other contract. If no response is received for the fresh notice, this can be proved and shown in the court if the buyer files any suit against you. Considering the above situations, if no response is received, the property can be sold even without the buyer's signature. Thank You.
1. You can sell the property after having issued the legal notice and issued a public notice about the cancellation of the sale agreement and waited for 15 days from the date of publication of the public notice in a local newspaper.
You can also file a caveat petition agaisnt the buyer before trying to sell the property since he may file an injunction suit and try to get an exparte injunction in your absence.
2. Once you have cancelled the sale agreement by the said legal notice, if you are not barred by court o sell the proeprty by an order of the injunction then you can very well go ahead with the execution of sale deed in favor of the prospective buyer. If he goes to court, you may challenge the same because an unregistered sale agreement is not enforceable in court o f law, the court may pass an order to refund the consideration amount received from him towards advance.
3. See the above answer which answers this question too.
4. The time taken for disposal of a suit cannot be predicted, however it may take at least two to three years.
Please note that if the agreement period has expired, there is no necessity for his signature to cancel the sale agreement, you may cancel the same by issuing a legal notice conveying your decision to cancel the same since he has not honored or was ready to perform his part of the contract.
it is an unregistered agreement and in view of the detailed narration it is understood that you have given ample time for the buyer including the legal notice granting time and he did not turned up, in that fact scenario you can take the demand draft of the advance amount and return to the buyer informing that you have cancelled the agreement and returning his advance amount. inform the said fact and sell to the prospective buyer if anyone come forward to buy, you will have the chances to sustain the subsequent sale as you are senior citizens and you have given reasonable time to the buyer without even forfeiting the advance amount. As a opinion we can suggest the probabilities but cannot say that exactly in this way only it would happen. but the probability for sustaining your version would be high on the facts narrated by you.
