Recorded Webinar: Is Your Client`s Deposit Refundable? Contract Termination in a Changing Market

Terminating a contract for the sale and purchase of real property may be fraught with difficulty. While many real property contracts may be validly terminated by either the vendor or purchaser for a variety of reasons such as unable to obtain finance, building and pest, due diligence or because of statutory rights to terminate, the right to terminate for other reasons may be less certain, particularly in a COVID-19 landscape.

This session will examine a number of different contract termination scenarios and legal rights and remedies that follow. The session considers:

• Standard termination provisions in contracts of sale for real property

• Repudiation and rescission

• Negotiating extensions to a contract completion date and recent decisions of the courts

• Sunset clauses and the ability of developers to terminate the contract – statutory rights and court decisions

• Off the plan sales – can a purchaser refuse to complete for defects, misdescriptions or material changes?

• In what circumstances will the vendor or purchaser have a right to damages or specific performance? Case study of El Ali v Tritton [2019] NSWCA 111

• Forfeiture of deposits and other relief.

• Impact of COVID-19 on contract termination