Hi All , I recently purchase a land and the land settlement completed as well . The land contract has a clause mentioning I need to sign a building contracting with any builder with in 90 days . 90 Days have finished and I still not signed a contract with any builder at the moment . I deposited with a builder and then drawing plans , site costs , tender ..etc with the Builder . The Builder was impacted by covid and there are delay's from builder to issue the contract , as a result I haven't signed the contract . The Land developer recently came back to me and asking me : The vendor expects compliance of this clause and, if your client has not done so already, please ensure that your client enters in the building contract as per the terms of the contract. The vendor relies on the terms of the contract. The clause in the land contract mentions the following if i dont sign the building contract with in 90 days : I am abit nervous and stressed about the whole thing . I am not sure why the land developer wants me to sign the contract with any builder . Its a small venture he already sold all the land there . I dont know what his intentions are . In anyway my intention is to build but my builder has some impact due to covid which is not in my control to sign the contract . I have all the proofs that the builder is delaying . can any experts help and suggest your thoughts . 1) In worest case scenarios , if the land developer wants to trouble me , what he can do ? 2) I am enquiring with my solicitor as well , who is saying nothing to worry but i was checking here to see other experts view. 3) what options are available for me to save / prevent me from any action 4) what does a caveat mean ? in this case the land is already registered on my name . so what the land developer can do once the land is registered , wil lthey be able to claim any additional money from me / will they be able to retransfer the land back to them ? what is the law ? Thanks for your time and suggestion in helping me. Regards, Syd.
It sounds like (and I could be wrong) that the land developer does not want a whole lot of vacant land sitting around in the development? (Maybe this is Stage 1 and the developer wants to move on with Stage 2, 3 etc.?) You have a valid reason you have not signed a building contract yet. Your solicitor is probably right when he says nothing to worry about. He/you can just reply to the developer (who is threatening you with penalties) giving your reasons why and that should be enough to make him stop. It will cost the developer money to do what they are threatening and it would be unlikely to stand up in a courtroom if it got to that, due to COVID-19 issues with your builder.
Is the clause valid once settlement has taken place as the vendoe/developer no longer has an interest in the land? I agree with @Propertunity that the vendor doesn't want to be seeing uncommitted sites on the subdivision but also wants to see all sites so heavily committed that the owners can't simply onsell vacant land creating a secondary market.
