A wise old proverb says, "Look before you leap." 

Don't let the excitement of buying a home blind you to the importance of doing your research before signing anything. Before you leap, look!

It's not just a matter of finding the right property at the right price; you also need to make sure that your finances, especially your cash flow, won't prevent you from meeting the financial commitments you made when you signed the sale agreement.

Otherwise, you might find yourself in the same unfortunate situation as the property buyer who was recently ordered to pay substantial damages by the High Court because she was unable to pay the required deposits.

The seller claims damages after three sales.

• A trust sold a property to a buyer for GH 750,000. 

• The trust canceled the sale and offered the property for resale after the buyer failed to pay the two required deposits, which totaled GH 280,000.

• It sued the buyer for its GH 250,000 loss on the sale and the GH 22,500 estate agent commission it paid for the new sale after reselling the property for R500,000.

The buyer used a variety of arguments to fight the claim, none of which were accepted by the court. In addition to attorney and client fees, it ordered the buyer to pay a total of GH 235,875 in damages. That is a figure that the Court appears to have arrived at after taking into account the buyer's previous payment of GH 40,000. This presumably leaves the buyer with a total of just under R280,000 in addition to two sets of legal costs. Important lessons for buyers and sellers Buyers: Before you sign... Of course, the main takeaway for buyers from this is to make sure they can follow the terms of the sale agreement they sign, focusing especially on their ability to pay when they need to.

And merchants: Before you sign…

Dealers then again will need to stay away from all the gamble, deferral and cost that the confidence for this situation was put to by exploring forthright the monetary place of all likely purchasers prior to tolerating any proposition. Additionally, check to see that the terms of your sale agreement adequately safeguard you in the event that the buyer defaults.

Seller: Reduce your losses by taking reasonable steps Our law requires that you first take reasonable steps to reduce your losses before you can sue for losses you suffer as a result of someone else's breach of contract (or wrongdoing).

The Court put it this way: When there has been a breach of contract, the mitigating rule applies. The innocent party cannot simply stand by and watch as their losses mount; The party must take positive, reasonable steps to stop losses from happening or getting worse. The rule does not require the innocent party to take any additional actions beyond what a reasonable person would take in the same situation. As additional damage, reasonable costs incurred in implementing the mitigation measures may be claimed. The party in breach bears the burden of demonstrating the reasonableness of the actions taken or the unreasonableness of the costs incurred. As a seller, you should therefore make it a point to actively seek out alternative buyers, only enlist the assistance of professionals when absolutely necessary, and only accept a fair resale price. In this instance, the evidence had shown that the trust had used an estate agent and resold the property at the price it did. Both actions were reasonable.

Always refuse to sign anything without seeking professional counsel!