Can You Force a Property Sale After a Failed Closing? Legal Insights in Ohio

Sometimes property transfers don’t close. Most of the time, there are good reasons for this. Maybe one of the parties couldn’t get financing. Maybe there were newly discovered defects. Maybe the other side couldn’t sell the property they needed to in order to make their down payment. 

Sometimes, though, there is no real justifiable reason. Maybe the seller just changed their mind after signing the purchase agreement. Maybe they regretted signing and thought that they could get a better deal. Maybe a buyer found a better option and would rather go with that one. What can you do when the other side of a transaction just changes their mind after a purchase agreement is signed? 

You aren’t out of luck. Ohio courts allow you to sue for breach of the purchase agreement and, in some circumstances, seek specific performance of the purchase agreement. Put simply, they can force the parties to actually complete the contract. 

This equitable remedy isn’t limited to just forcing the purchase. A court can award all of the other costs that were incurred by the non-breaching party as a result of the breaching party’s change of heart. This can include additional rental costs, moving costs, and mortgage interest that had to be paid out.  

In the context of commercial property, this can get VERY expensive for the breacher. A court can include the lost income for productive use of the property as additional damages. This can include lost rents (if there are tenants) and lost profits if one of the parties intended to use the property for a productive use themselves. 

Specific performance is an equitable remedy. That means that a court will order it if they think it is “fair” to the parties. An Ohio court has discretion to not order it if they think it would be unnecessarily burdensome given the facts of the case. However, it remains a real option to force dilatory parties to actually do the thing they agreed they would do. 

If your property transfer fell through, contact us to see if we can force the other side to do what they said they would do. 

This blog was drafted by Nicholas Weiss, the owner and founder of N.P. Weiss Law. For more information about Nick, visit his bio page.

This article is meant to be utilized as a general guideline. Nothing in this blog is intended to create an attorney-client relationship or to provide legal advice on which you should rely without talking to your own retained attorney first.  If you have questions about your particular legal situation, you should contact a legal professional.