How Do You Change the Purchaser in the Agreement?

Very often a purchaser is changed after the offer is signed. Legally speaking, when changing a purchaser, the vendor wants to make sure that the new or added purchaser can be held legally responsible for closing if there is a problem. The new purchaser wants to make sure that the vendor can be legally bound to deal with him/her.

If possible, draft a new Offer on the same terms with the new purchaser and original vendor, have all the new parties sign it, release the original purchaser and assign or return the deposit. Another way to change the purchaser is to have an Assignment Agreement drafted whereby the new purchaser receives an assignment of the agreement. For new homes, the builder’s consent (and a fee) is generally required.

We rarely see new Offers or Assignment Agreements as the parties don’t want or have time to go to a lawyer to have one prepared. Instead, we often see amendments deleting one purchaser and inserting another. This can be problematic. If the change is being made this way, it is important to know that an agreement can only be amended by BOTH parties to the agreement. Both the original vendor and purchaser should sign the amendment changing the name. The original purchaser and the new purchaser alone cannot amend the agreement. If you do use an amendment to change the purchaser, then the new purchaser should also sign the amendment with the original offer attached to it and a statement inserted stating that the new purchaser accepts and adopts the terms of the original agreement.