Massachusetts Contract for Deed Law

Contract for Deed – General – Massachusetts

Massachusettes Case Law

The facts that a plaintiff is the vendor and that performance by the vendee will consist entirely or primarily of the payment of money have never prevented specific performance. Commonly, the remedy at law of a vendor is not adequate. Every piece of real estate has some unique disadvantage as well as advantage. The eagerness of buyers to acquire some properties is matched by the joy with which sellers part with others. Ownership of real estate is burdensome even when profitable. It hampers mobility. Years may be required to find a buyer. When at last a buyer is found, and a contract is made which is broken by the buyer, the owner, with the real estate still on his hands, finds that at law he can recover only the excess, if any, of the price over the value as judicially appraised. For these reasons, a vendor is regularly granted specific performance unless some ground for denying it exists in the particular case. Olszewski v. Sardynski, 316 Mass. 715 (1944).

It is settled in Massachusetts that specific performance of contracts for the sale of land will generally be granted where the buyer shows that he is unable by reason of the nature of the subject, the conditions of the market, or other circumstances, to procure an article substantially similar to the one which he contracted to buy. Massbank v. Currie Corporation et. al, 2000 Mass.Super.Lexis 636 (2000).