Backout of selling your home
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Backout of selling your home
My mother who is 84 and suffers from depression takes Zoloft entered into an
agreement to sell her vacation home and now wants to back out of the deal
realizing it was a mistake. Can she back out?
Asked on June 25, 2019 under Real Estate Law, North Carolina
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
No, deciding it was a mistake, or your mother's age, or even her depression UNLESS it can be shown by medical evidence that it so affected her that she lacked mental capacity when she entered into the contract, will not let her get out of the contract to sell. (If she was not mentally competent, then that would void the contract, since only mentally competent people can enter into contracts, but that is very "high bar" to get over--very few people are so affected by mental illness as to lack mental capacity.)
Typically, you can only get out of a contract if 1) the other side breaches, or violates, it in some material, or important, way, such as by not paying what they are supposed to pay when they should pay it; or 2) there is some provision in the contract which by its plain terms would let her cancel or terminate it.
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