Difficulties of resisting specific performance -…

Peter Sibley has co‑written an article with Harriet Durn of Charles Russell Speechlys for the June edition of the Estates Gazette, answering the below question:

Question: I have contracted to buy a development site. The contract for purchase includes a condition requiring the seller to obtain a signed agreement from the local authority before completion can take place. The completion date has now passed and I did not complete, because I doubted that the seller could secure the local authority’s co-operation in time. The seller is threatening to seek an order for specific performance which would compel me to complete. Can I defend those proceedings on the basis that the seller’s ability to complete depended on a third party?

Click here to read the article on the Estates Gazette website (paywalled)