No one even noticed the solar panels on the roof until the inspection. And even then, it didn't set off any alarm bells - our buyer thought "oh cool, solar panels", the inspector noted them but couldn't test their functioning, and nobody mentioned them to us, but we wouldn't have thought anything of it either.
Strangely, northern Colorado, in spite of its 300+ days of sunshine, is way behind the curve when it comes to solar energy. In 22 years, we'd never before sold a home with solar panels, with the exception of some 80's homes with huge and almost always non-functional solar hot water systems. Modern solar systems are just beginning to get some traction in our area.
But that's a topic for another day. This post is about difficult choices.
The day after the inspection, two things happened. First, our buyer got a call from Solar City in regards to taking over the seller's solar lease. Huh? What!? There had been no mention of a lease in the MLS listing or the property disclosure, and it sure wasn't in the sales contract.
And while our buyer was trying to figure out what the Solar City rep was talking about, we got the title commitment. And there it was - a lien on the property by Solar City.
WTF?
The first thing our buyer did was to Google Solar City. If you're ever curious to see a huge number of angry customers trash your company for poor service, check out Solar City's ratings sometime. Our buyer was horrified.
What happened over the next several weeks was a very ugly negotiation. Our buyers really wanted the house, but didn't want the solar system, certainly didn't want the undisclosed $18K lease obligation, and didn't want to deal with Solar City. And they had no contractual obligation to accept any of that.
The seller played dumb. And the listing agent, and his broker, were unavailable for comment and essentially refused to discuss any resolution other than a lease transfer.
Lawyers got involved, and everyone started playing hardball.
I have no idea what the listing agent and seller were thinking, but their strategy seemed to be focused on getting our buyers to cancel the contract and go away. There was, of course, no legal basis for accomplishing that from their end - there was a signed contract, enforceable by specific performance for the seller.
So the day before the scheduled closing - which the sellers said they would not attend if our buyers had not signed the lease transfer - we were faced with three choices:
- Cancel the contract, or
- Refuse to transfer the lease, go to the closing, and if the sellers didn't close, declare a seller default and seek legal redress, or
- Accept the lease and close as scheduled.
The first choice was unacceptable - the buyers wanted the home and in fact had closed on their existing house that morning, so they were homeless.
The second choice, according to the buyers' attorney, was a legal slam dunk, but possibly could have resulted in several years of litigation before resolution.
So, very reluctantly, they took the third choice, accepted the transfer of the lease and its $18K obligation, closed and moved into the house.
The three weeks leading up to the closing were very hard on our buyers - stress and uncertainty, along with the knowledge that they were blameless and were being treated terribly by the other side, resulted in many sleepless nights. It's terrible when a client is faced by a situation like that. We provided what advice, comfort and support we could, and I think our help was critical in finding the solution that worked best for them. All of us really wanted to go the legal route, but in the end, that was just unpractical.
They still love the house (and their agents), and they know they made the only rational decision. And having made that decision, they are looking at other options for redress, at least from the listing company, since they sellers have moved out of state.
In the end, we all got a refresher course in one of life's hard lessons - sometimes, being right, having the law on your side, and having acted correctly all along, just isn't enough for a reasonable and desirable outcome. So you do what you have to do, and move on.
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