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that your right of first refusal will have renewed with your lease renewals
and that the owner cannot sell the property without first offering it to you.
We recommend that you ask your attorney to review the wording of your
lease agreement and assist you in explaining the continued existence
of your right of first refusal to the owner.

Beware the suspensive conditions in the offer
to purchase

July 2017

“I’ve made a written offer on property that has been accepted
by the seller. The offer was subject to the condition that I
acquire a mortgage from a bank for the full purchase price
within 30 days. I received a mortgage quotation from a bank
and notified the seller that I will accept it. In the meantime, I‘ve
sought for additional quotations and asked the seller for extra
time to search for a better interest rate. However the seller
refused and indicated that he was going to accept a higher
offer from another buyer because I had not complied with the
conditions. Can he do that? I did accept the first quotation.”

The legal question to be answered in this situation is whether or not the
suspensive condition has been timeously and properly complied with. A
suspensive condition is a condition that has to be complied with before
the agreement between the parties is enforceable. Because such a Property
condition can have important consequences, it is vital that the parties’
intentions are clearly and accurately set out in the offer to purchase.

In a recent judgement, our High Court had to rule on the interpretation
of a mortgage clause in an offer to purchase. The clause read that “…
the buyer should acquire a mortgage and provide the seller with the
mortgage offer, mortgage quotation and pre-agreement statement
within 30 days from the parties’ signing of the agreement.” The buyer had
accepted the bank’s mortgage quotation and was of the opinion that
the condition has been complied with. The seller, however, was of the
opinion that the court should interpret the mortgage clause to mean
that the seller had to be provided with the documents as proof of the
condition’s fulfilment.
The court strictly interpreted the clause and determined that because
the mortgage clause in an offer to purchase exists for the buyer’s
protection and the fulfilment thereof was within the seller’s discretion, the
written acceptance of the mortgage quotation by die buyer, before the

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