We are not willing to sign any agreement and accept earnest money and be bound to the buyer. So, our advocate has advised us to accept earnest money as deposit and sign a letter of Intent.
A letter of intent is supposedly, a non-binding declaration of terms upon which the concerned parties are willing to deal. At times, Companies use a letter of intent as the foundation for preparing a binding written contract. But, courts sometimes find that a letter of intent is actually an agreement. If a Company does not want a letter of intent to be binding, then the only option left to ensure this is to have it expressly stated in the letter of intent that is not legally binding. And, anything short of that may end up only as a contract.
Despite the above mentioned fact, the question here arises is that – why don’t you want to enter into a contract? Is there any particular thing you are concerned about in the contracts? After all, when you are not bound, then neither is the other party. Furthermore, it can be quite difficult for a buyer to get finance when he has no contract to buy the property.