RespiteFarm

When we signed an agreement to build with Topsider, we had them add a clause that would sever us from the contract in the event of our land purchase not working out to our satisfaction:
Should Purchaser be unsuccessful in acquiring their property and wish to cancel this Agreement, they shall be entitled to a full refund, less only charges for actual work performed which, if any, is pre-authorized by Purchaser.

Well, because our land purchase has not moved forward, we want to get our downpayment back and into the bank where it will earn some interest, modest as it may be.

An email was sent to Topsider on Sunday, April 19 asking them to stop all design work on our house, as we didn’t want to incur any additional expenses. We followed up that email with a phone call the following Monday to let them know that we hit a road block on our land purchase and we wanted the design process to stop.

The person we spoke to was the designer and he was very agreeable and understood our plight.

As the land purchase crumbled even more, we decided to get our down payment back from Topsider.

Laura’s phone call with them today, ended well but getting them to live up to the letter of the agreement was not as straightforward as it should have been. After all, it was their language, specially written into the contract for us, that gave us unlimited time to get this specific land purchase worked out to our satisfaction; it we weren’t able to close on the land, our down payment, minus any design fees accrued, would be refunded.

So after some needless back-and-forth, they agreed to refund our money – only they said it would take two weeks to do so.

When we signed the contract, we paid them on the spot. Waiting two weeks before they could return our money to us is unacceptable. In the end, they agreed to issue the refund next week.

This experience gave us great pause about going forward with Topsider.

Up until today, our relationship with them was smooth and agreeable. Now, not so much.

Update:May 21 – We finally received our down payment refund minus the charge for the design work already performed – Yay!.

Update:We were supposed to receive an email today, May 4, from Topsider letting us know when to expect the refudn. It never came. We put a stop on the payment.

We spoke to the owners of the adjacent land last Sunday.

Their meeting with their attorney is scheduled for Wednesday, May 29.

As of this writing, we have not heard anything from the seller’s agent about the resuslts of the meeting.

In the meantime, the online search for alternative property will resume.

Update: May 22 – the owners of the lot we are trying to buy received a notice from the lawyer of the owner of the adjoining lot giving notice that they intend to dispute the use of a certain portion of the road which, according to documents filed in 1993 when the lots were established, is to be shared – in whole – by both lots. This comes on the heels by an offer of the owner of the adjoining lot to build, at his expense, a road that would parallel a portion of the shared road into “our” property. We’re assuming he abandoned that plan after finding out just how expensive it would be to do – we’re talking building on a steep dropoff populated by a stream.

Update: June 6 – We are no longer waiting for this issue to resolve. We purchased a 2.5 acre plot in Powhatan County on June 5. While not as “roomy” as the Louisa property, this parcel has plenty of charm.

It is half wooded and half pasture. The wooded half backs up to a neighboring pond. It is on the wooded half where we will build the house. I plan to have some pictures of the lot posted soon.