You verbally agree to buy a house for $250,000. When the contract is prepared, the price is accidentally typed in as $25,000 rather than $250,000, but no one notices it until after you and the seller sign the document. At that point, you claim you only have to pay $25,000 and you claim that was the price you had agreed to originally. The court will say you are:
A) correct; under the Statute of Frauds, written documents control, not oral statements
B) correct; under the Statute of Frauds, written documents for real estate control the deal
C) incorrect; the consideration ($25,000) is insufficient given the value of the house
D) incorrect; $25,000 was obviously a mistake and the price goes to $250,000
E) incorrect; you are guilty of perjury and will go to prison

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The mistake is obvious and therefore the court will correct it to the intended price of $250,000. This is based on the principle of mutual mistake, where both parties did not intend for the price to be $25,000. Additionally, the mistake was unilateral, meaning only one party made the mistake, which also supports the court correcting it to the intended price.

You Verbally Agree to Buy a House for $250,000