Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a few practices of contracts for sale of real estate and to point out their problems. We researched Listing Agreement fully and after that we have been investigating contracts for sale of real estate since April, 1994. From the investigation, this paper deals with their practices, forcusing on three points: (1) choice of contract forms for sale of real estate, (2) warranty of habitability and (3) risk of loss.
In most cases we have checked, real estate brokers on the side of sellers choose one of some contract forms of real estate transaction and draw up it. That is why many contracts have tendency to be advantageous to sellers.
Many contracts restrict sellers' responsibility for warranty of habitability; some of them have no provisions for warranty of habitability. However, it should be paid attention to that the subjects of this research are secondhand houses excluding newly-built ones.
As for risk of loss, the provisions of contracts are different from those of the Civil Code. Although the section 534 of the Civil Code provides that creditors (purchasers) should charge risk of loss, in fact, all contracts provide that sellers should charge risk of loss.
