The Seller’s Family Solicitor Says “No” to Lease Options

When you do your lease options deals, you will come across sellers who insist on using their own solicitors to go over the contracts before signing them.

This is fine provided that the seller's solicitor is familiar with lease options. Otherwise, you can almost guarantee not to hear from the seller again because the seller's solicitor advises against signing it. We've had deals fallen through right up to this point and it's very frustrating indeed!

So Why does that happen?

Firstly, the seller's solicitor is probably unfamiliar with lease options deals and contracts. Our solicitor who normally deals with our BMV deals is certainly clueless about lease options. In that case, they just don't want any hassle in case something goes wrong.

Secondly, the seller's solicitor only considers the legal aspect of lease options which they know little about and rarely takes the seller's situation into consideration. Do they care if the seller has financial difficulties or wants to move to Australia?

So how do you handle that?

1. Pre-empt it! Explain to the seller upfront that if they insist on using their own solicitor, the likely outcome is that the solicitor would advise against it and give a reason for that.

2. Reiterate to the seller the benefits of doing the deal with you and emphasise the potential consequences of not doing the deal with you.

3. Sit down and go through the entire contract with the seller in simple English. There's a saying that "there's nothing to be feared, only to be understood".

4. If the seller insists on using a solicitor, offer to appoint one on their behalf and pay for it. Having a solicitor who understands options to act for the seller can prevent any possiblity of the seller claiming the contracts were signed under duress!

You see, successfully completing on a lease options deal goes beyond the basic understanding of its concept and the paperwork. There are many human aspects of it that need to be carefully managed.

Hope that helps.

Best regards,

Vincent Wong & John Lee