Contracts II

Land Contract Provision


  1. The following classes of contracts are subject to . . . . the Statute of Frauds, forbidding enforcement unless there is a written memorandum . . .
    1. a contract for the sale of an interest in land (the land contract provision);
Restatement Second of Contracts § 125
Restatement Second of Contracts § 125

Contract to Transfer, Buy, or Pay for an Interest in Land

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  1. A promise to transfer to any person any interest in land is within the Statute of Frauds.
  2. A promise to buy any interest in land is within the Statute of Frauds, irrespective of the person to whom the transfer is to be made.
  3. When a transfer of an interest in land has been made, a promise to pay the price, if originally within the Statute of Frauds, ceases to be within it unless the promised price is itself in whole or in part an interest in land.
  4. Statutes in most states except from the land contract and one-year provisions of the Statute of Frauds short-term leases and contracts to lease, usually for a term not longer than one year.
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Restatement Second of Contracts § 127
Restatement Second of Contracts § 127

Interest in Land

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An interest in land within the meaning of the Statute is any right, privilege, power or immunity, or combination thereof, which is an interest in land under the law of property and is not "goods" within the Uniform Commercial Code.

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Exception:

Restatement Second of Contracts § 129
Restatement Second of Contracts § 129

Action in Reliance; Specific Performance

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A contract for the transfer of an interest in land may be specifically enforced notwithstanding failure to comply with the Statute of Frauds if it is established that the party seeking enforcement, in reasonable reliance on the contract and on the continuing assent of the party against whom enforcement is sought, has so changed his position that injustice can be avoided only by specific enforcement.

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