(a) Where any contract or extension thereof for the sale of any interest in land fails to state the time within which, or the circumstances under which, a deed is to be delivered, the time for the delivery of the deed shall be a reasonable time after the date on which the contract was entered into, and in no case more than one year subsequent to such date.

Terms Used In Alabama Code 35-4-75

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • year: means a calendar year; but, whenever the word "year" is used in reference to any appropriations for the payment of money out of the treasury, it shall mean fiscal year. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
(b) Where any contract for the sale of any interest in land or any extension of such contract has been recorded or rerecorded and five years have elapsed since the time provided by the parties or by subsection (a) of this section for the delivery of the deed, whichever period shall be the longer, and no action has been brought for the specific performance of such contract or for the foreclosure of the vendee’s interest or for the enforcement of an equitable lien arising from the contract and no lis pendens has been properly filed, a lienholder or a purchaser for value or mortgagee may conclusively presume that such contract has been abandoned by the parties thereto and that the vendee named in the contract and his successors in interest have no equitable claim against the land made the subject of the contract; provided, that this section shall not apply so long as the vendee named in the contract or his successors in interest shall be in actual possession of the land made the subject of the contract.
(c) This section shall apply to contracts and extensions thereof recorded before or after January 31, 1972; except, that the period of five years provided for in subsection (b) of this section shall not be deemed to have expired in any case until January 31, 1974.
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