Q: Landlord decides to sell rent house, made verbal offer to sell to lessee, rescinded the offer (with racist overtones)...
(I'm subletting; my housemate is the lessee.) The landlord (who bought the house less than a year ago) told us he wanted to sell, made verbal offer to my housemate to sell it to her for what he bought it for. She was interested, scheduled inspection, talked to the bank. Then a couple of weeks later, he told her that he had been thinking, and that he had decided that "this wasn't the house for her," and that he would rather sell to someone with "the means" to do all necessary upgrades to the house right away, in the interest of his own property value (he also bought the house next door and moved in when he bought this one). He doesn't know anything about my housemate's "means," barely even looked at the house or our lease when he bought it from our last landlord, with cash, no inspection.
Does she have any recourse? (The lease does not contain a first right of refusal clause.) She is also the only POC living on our block, in an overall very white town.
A: In order for an agreement to sell real estate in NJ to be enforceable, the contract must be in writing. The only verbal real estate agreement that is enforceable is for a lease of one year in duration.
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