Check the Timing For Responding to HOA and Condo Documents-You Might Be Surprised

In Northern Virginia we have a large number of neighborhoods with homeowners associations (HOA) and the closer you get to DC the more condominiums (COA) you will find.  Our contracts spell out the delivery and receipt of documents and the time-frame for review of these documents for buyers.

Unfortunately many agents misinterpret the time-frame and advise their clients they have three days AFTER the deliver of documents to respond.  This is incorrect.  If you read the contract it says WITHIN three days.  If the documents are delivered at noon on Friday the clock starts ticking then.  Not on Saturday.  So the time-frame to respond and possibly withdraw your contract without penalty is on the following Monday by noon not Tuesday by 9 PM.

Why do I bring this up?  Recently in a contract review continuing education class only 2 of us had the correct interpretation of this statue in our Virginia contract. That was out of a class of close to 40 agents and brokers with varying length of experience in our market.  The instructor brought up numerous court cases where buyers had tried to use the HOA and COA contingency to break their contracts and lost due to the misinterpretation by their agents of the timing.  In addition I've run across a couple of blog posts recently written by local agents giving buyers the impression they had an extra day.

Certainly I don't know what happened after the court cases and whether agents found themselves filing claims with their E&O carrier to cover lost earnest money deposits.  However if you are an agent in Virginia please double check the language in the Virginia Jurisdictional Agreement and speak to your broker.  Don't leave your buyer holding the bag due misinterpreting one word in our local contract.