Grieve & Anor v Enge & Anor

[2006] QCA 213

Queensland Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Contract
2. › Discharge, breach and defences to action for breach
3. › Repudiation
4. › Effect of repudiation on obligation to perform conditions precedent
5. › Whether vendor's repudiation dispensed purchasers from complying with finance condition
6. › Whether intimation that performance would be futile excused non-performance
1. Contract
2. › Implied terms
3. › Duty of cooperation
4. › Vendor's obligation to allow access for valuation
5. › Whether refusal to allow valuer access breached implied duty to cooperate
6. › Whether duty arose notwithstanding express access provisions in contract
7. › Mackay v Dick (1881) 6 App Cas 251
1. Contract
2. › Sale of land
3. › Conditional contracts
4. › Finance condition
5. › Vendor's right to terminate for purchaser's failure to give notice
6. › Whether right to terminate lost by vendor's prior repudiation
1. Equity
2. › Specific performance
3. › Readiness, willingness and ability to complete
4. › Whether purchasers' failure to comply with finance condition disentitled them to specific performance

Quick Take

A vendor who repudiates a contract for sale of land cannot subsequently terminate the contract by relying on the purchaser's failure to comply with a finance condition, where the repudiation amounted to an intimation that compliance would be futile. A vendor is under an implied duty of cooperation to allow a purchaser's valuer access to the property for the purpose of obtaining finance, even where the express access provisions of the contract do not specifically provide for valuation access, because obtaining finance is inextricably linked to the purchaser's central obligation to pay the purchase price.