Posted by RB (AZ) on October 09, 2003 at 24:13:57:
This is sort of long, sorry. Here is the deal. I was in a rush to sell an investment house (a fixer upper) I had bought since I was moving out of state in less than a month. I found a mother and son that were interested and we set up a contract for deed sale ? through a lawyer. The first hint that something was wrong came when I received a letter from their insurance company saying that the insurance on the house was being cut off. I had put a clause in the contract that stated they needed to maintain insurance. Then, after paying promptly for some time, they missed a payment and then the call came. The son had been injured and hadn?t worked for some time and they couldn?t keep up the payments and fixing up the property. They apparently just want out of the property.
Anyways, here is my question. The lawyer that prepared the documents had mentioned that if this situation occurred, then I would have to foreclose on the property since Illinois is a foreclosure state ? I don?t want to deal with that. In fact, I don?t want to have to deal with the property at all, but I may not have a choice. The contract appears to have a default segment written into it that gives a few different avenues that may be used to terminate the contract. Can I use this clause and then perhaps use a quit claim deed? I have spoken with a lawyer; however he is not up to speed on Illinois law. I have asked the buyers to try and sell the property; however it appears that they have stopped communicating with me. Any help and any investors in the Peoria, IL area who could give me a hand would be greatly appreciated. THANKS.