Arbitrator's Report

£35,000 and a contract was prepared with a proposed closing date of the 15th flay 1987.

However the Claimant was unhappy with the condition of the premises and negotiated a reduction of £1,000 in the purchase price. The Claimant's solicitor sent back the contract completed by the Claimant on the 13th July 1987 with an amended closing date of the 14th August 1987. The Respondent's solicitors had to obtain the consent of the Respondent's mortgagees, Anglo Irish Finance Limited, and it was not until 13th October 1987 that the Respondent's solicitors were able to send back the contract for sale duly completed. Neither the Claimant's solicitors nor the Respondent's solicitors appear at this stage to have adverted to the question of fixing a new closing date.

The sale had not been closed when on or about the 26th day of June 1988 the property was severely damaged by fire. There was correspondence between the Claimant's solicitors and the Respondent's solicitors in which the question of the recission of the contract was discussed and ultimately by a letter of the 24th November 1989 the Claimant's solicitors indicated that their client did not wish to rescind the contract and the question to be determined was the measure of compensation to be paid to him.

Conflict of Evidence

During the course of his evidence at the hearing, the Claimant stated that he was at all times willing to complete the purchase following the receipt of the completed contract by his solicitors, that he had obtained loan approval from the Property Loan & Investment Company and that the Property Loan & Investment Company were pressing him to complete the sale. The correspondence from his solicitors did not support this evidence, in particular the Claimants solicitor did not furnish their Requisitions on Title until the 9th June 1988 and no evidence was given to me at the hearing to explain the discrepancy between the Claimant's evidence and the contents of the letters written on his behalf to the Respondent's solicitors.