Default in performance of sale contracts – remedies and choices

Once contracts have been exchanged for the sale of a property, the parties will usually consider that to mark the end of stress and uncertainty, and the beginning of the process of organising completion of the transaction.  If one party fails to complete, and renegotiation is not successful, the remedies for default will come into play.  The well-established remedies are codified in the two major sets of standard conditions, and there is a developed body of caselaw surrounding them.

The remedy chosen may be one designed to achieve completion of the contract, or it may be one designed to achieve termination.  Very often the dispute will in reality be about the fate of the deposit but will present as an argument about whether a breach of the contract terms was repudiatory in nature – a question which it is not always easy to answer.

Aspects covered in this webinar will include:

• What might prevent a buyer from obtaining specific performance?
• Time of the essence
• What breaches are repudiatory, and what if both parties are in repudiatory breach?
• What are the courts doing currently as regards forfeiture of deposits?