If you enter into a land contract can you ask for the down payment? are you legally entitled to it?

Me and my wife entered into a land contract that was for 2 years then we were to take it to the bank. We since ended the contract and have just recently moved out. We decided not to take it to the bank, we were no longer interested. It Is fine with both parties, so i was just curios if we made a 5000.00$ down payment if we were entitled to it back?

Yes, you ought to be able to get your $5000.00 back, provided that your contract didn't stipulate otherwise. The money you put down was for the purchase of the home and since that didn't take place, you ought to be able to recover it. You may want to check what you signed as well as what the law stipulates for the area in which you live. Good Luck.

You need to check your documents.

1. A land contract is a sale and you are legally the equitable owner. This means you really need to sell your interest rather than just walk away.

The legal owner is the party you were buying from.

You would have been paying a down payments and the money belongs to the prior owner. When you sell you may get paid more or less than you have paid in depending on the new sale price.

2. If you had an option to buy then you an just let the option expire. You would have paid option consideration (something of value) to start the option. That money belongs to the other party from the day the option was created. There is no reason they should pay back to you.

it sounds like you had what is called an "option".

here's how an option works. a property is for sale. you want to buy it. you and owner agree on price. you dont have all of the money right now and want time to raise the money. owner, for a fee($5000 in your case), takes the property off of the market(does not try to sell it to someone else) for an agreed upon period of time. if you get the money in the time alloted, you buy the property. if you dont buy it, the owner keeps your $5000.

2 years sounds like a long period of time for an option. options are sometimes used in speculation.

what you did might also be considered to be "earnest money". if you back out of the deal , you lose your earnest money.

earnest money-

buyer cancels deal, seller keeps EM

seller cancels deal, buyer gets EM back

if deal goes through, EM is deducted from purchase price

consult a lawyer, but it looks to me like either way, your 5K is gone.