Hi dariofoo,

My husband and I have purchased an apartment and we are now at the final stage, i.e. seller to handover vacant possession. The seller refused to move out/hand over the key until he receives refund (waiver) from his bank for the penalty imposed on him for early settlement. Though the lawyer has explained to him that that has nothing to do with us and he needs to liaise with his bank directly, he insists on that.

FYI, we appointed same lawyer for S&P, our lawyer. My bank has disbursed the balance sum and lawyer confirmed receipt on 21-Sep-2012. The seller was informed and we went to see the apartment on 25-Sep-2012. We noticed that he has not moved at all. We informed lawyer and lawyer issued an official letter to inform him on his obligation to handover vp as per S&P. Until todate, he has yet to handover the key.

1) I have heard from friends that there is case like this whereby the seller refused to move out and owner first go to see owner together with police. 2nd time will go to change the lock, then 3rd time enter the premise and throw all things out. But after reading your posts, I doubt that we can do that, right?

2) In your post #1273,
Q: May i know as well at what point above, I can confrim the house ownership have been successfully transfer from the seller to me?
A: At the stage where the title has been transferred to your name and where you have collected the keys.

Does that mean at this moment, though the title is already under our names, we are still not the legal owner? Does the seller has the right to cancel the deal at this point?

Other questions:
3) We have given him time and would prefer not to proceed with legal action. But what if we are to proceed with legal action, how long would the process take? Is it the lawyer's obligation to make sure the seller handover the VP to us and no additional legal cost incur if we choose to proceed with legal action?

4) Is the verbal conversation/follow up made by lawyer with the seller valid in court?

5) Normally both parties will initial on every page and sign full signature at the signing page. What if the seller didn't initial at every page but only signed the signing page, is the S&P still valid? I believe so, else the bank would not have disbursed all the sum. ??

6) What is your advice for us on what to do next?

Many thanks to you in advance.

This post has been edited by hc2012: Oct 14 2012, 11:52 PM

The lawyer said all the delay are due to the vendor side, so no penalty on me. The lawyer is holding the balance purchase price. Only pending the release of key from seller. They never experience such cases before, so myself is like stuck here, dunno what to do.

Sending legal letter of demand... to be sent by my SPA lawyer or litigation lawyer? Does it mean we are entering into SP by doing so?

Thanks.

Thanks for your explanation.

My SPA states that the balance sum shall be released to the purchaser solicitor as stakeholder and the monies shall be released to the vendor provided that the vendor handover vacant possession to the purchaser. The vendor shall hand over the keys within 5 working days, failing which late delivery penalty interest will be charged to the vendor by the purchaser at 8% p.a. from the date the sum are fully disbursed.

Anyway, my SPA lawyer will try to "talk" to the vendor to get the key before we take the next action. Why got such unreasonable people in the world???