did that same thing once, and discovered that they had swapped the numbers for the interest rate and the term, so it was specified as a 4 year mortgage at 30% interest. Ouch!
The closing agent told me to just sign it and they'd fix it in an amendment later. Which I flatly refused to do - no f'ing way I'm signing on for $20k/month payments and hoping they fix it real soon now, especially when the fix is printing off one corrected page.
A similar thing happened to me. The paperwork for our most recent home purchase listed both my wife and I as female, even though I'm male! I emailed the lender and CC:ed my wife saying, "Please correct this as I currently identify as male," which gave my wife a chuckle.
>No one would actually pay 30% interest instead of 4% for a house, and there's no way the contract would hold up in court
Who will reimburse me the legal fees?
Lots and lots of people improperly lost their homes due to illegal robo-signing. They could have saved their houses if they had the resources to fight it in court.
There are several reasons the contract would be unenforceable. The main reason is that typos and obvious mistakes in a contract just result in the corrected contract applying.
Even if it were totally clear that both parties really intended 30% interest, which would not be the case, most US states have usury laws, 30% is way above the maximum allowed by any state. So the contract is automatically void in most states.
Even in states without usury laws, a mortgage at several times the prevailing rate would certainly be considered "unconscionable", making the contract unenforceable.
I’m sure this was probably not a big deal. No bank would issue such a mortgage. The numbers would have been corrected whether you caught it or not. After all, your mortgage is a separate agreement between you and the bank, and not part of the purchase and sale agreement.
I agree that this would have been fine. But at the same time, it also shouldn’t be a big deal to get a contract that says what it’s supposed to before you sign it.
The closing agent told me to just sign it and they'd fix it in an amendment later. Which I flatly refused to do - no f'ing way I'm signing on for $20k/month payments and hoping they fix it real soon now, especially when the fix is printing off one corrected page.