Live data from Hacker News

Contract for Sale of Soul

liminalwarmth.com

41–50 of 97 posts

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#41
BS. Satan would never write a contract without a forced arbitration clause.

I just realized several other people posted this. But hopefully the devil will take a moment to update before posting this again to HN three months hence.

Also not sure why this contract is relevant when everyone's already agreed to Apple and Facebook's TOS.

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#42
post #23

It would be interesting to see the stats on acceptance of this contract if it was used as the terms & conditions of some popular website or the clickwrap agreement on a popular software package.

Wouldn’t be enforceable due to section 3, clauses a and b:

> SECTION III. COMPENSATION FOR TRANSFER

> A. Buyer agrees to compensate Seller with an amount of no less than ten (10) United States Dollars for the transfer of the Soul within 48 commonly recognized Earth-hours of the receipt of the signed agreement via any medium, physical or electronic, as described in Section II-C, according to the conditions outlined in this Section (III).

> B. The sending of these funds (hereafter “the payment”) shall occur via PayPal.com and shall be sent to an electronic mail address provided by the Seller.

I believe that contract law would dictate that unless the Buyer is able to make a significant fraction of the payments, the contract is effectively null due to material breach.

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#43
post #14

The most amazing thing about this to me is that as conceptually interesting as this contract is at a high level, and given that I started off interested in the document, about half way through my eyes were glazing over ;and I gave up. I have to wonder how lawyers do their job. I've read chapters of academic text for my own knowledge, but somehow this legal writing style crushes me every time.

I recently bought a house in California and at some point a few hundred pages in I started to wonder about the wisdom of my insistence on reading everything. But it's straightforward enough to understand if you can tolerate the boredom.

A few hundred pages? Here in The Netherlands, the contract is maybe five pages, then a list of things that will stay in the house and finally a list of Q&A with the current owner about things like the wiring, any easements, etc. It's usually a model contract too, so you can compare your copy to the published model contract.

What's in these "few hundred pages"?

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#44

BS. Satan would never write a contract without a forced arbitration clause. I just realized several other people posted this. But hopefully the devil will take a moment to update before posting this again to HN three months hence. Also not sure why this contract is relevant when everyone's already agreed to Apple and Facebook's TOS.

BS. Satan would never write a contract without a forced arbitration clause.

I dunno, you are talking about someone who lost a golden fiddle to some hick kid from Georgia[1].

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh7BZf7D5Bw

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#45
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently bought a house in California and at some point a few hundred pages in I started to wonder about the wisdom of my insistence on reading everything. But it's straightforward enough to understand if you can tolerate the boredom.

A few hundred pages? Here in The Netherlands, the contract is maybe five pages, then a list of things that will stay in the house and finally a list of Q&A with the current owner about things like the wiring, any easements, etc. It's usually a model contract too, so you can compare your copy to the published model contract. What's in these "few hundred pages"?

In California the seller discloses as much as possible to the buyer - i) house inspection and pest inspection, ii) disclosures from the county, state, utilities district, iii) advisories of risk of wildfire, lead paint, natural hazards, earthquake; and much more. This is so that the buyer has as little possible recourse to sue in the future for losses on the property. This behavior also enables faster real estate deals b/c the buyer is more willing to offer without contingencies.

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#46
post #13

Reminds me of the 1995 "Bart Sells His Soul" episode of The Simpsons

Also in "The return of Don Camillo"[0] (1953).

There it's a richer guy buying the soul from an atheist communist ("just in case") tho, rather than the devil.

0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_Don_Camillo

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#47
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently bought a house in California and at some point a few hundred pages in I started to wonder about the wisdom of my insistence on reading everything. But it's straightforward enough to understand if you can tolerate the boredom.

A few hundred pages? Here in The Netherlands, the contract is maybe five pages, then a list of things that will stay in the house and finally a list of Q&A with the current owner about things like the wiring, any easements, etc. It's usually a model contract too, so you can compare your copy to the published model contract. What's in these "few hundred pages"?

Purchase terms, disclosures about the property, disclosures about the area it's in, financing terms, HOA bylaws, HOA financing, and lots more HOA stuff, title information, tax information... basically as much fun as you can have. And they keep adding more legally required disclosures, I think far past the point of diminishing returns as far as making anyone actually informed.

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#48
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few hundred pages? Here in The Netherlands, the contract is maybe five pages, then a list of things that will stay in the house and finally a list of Q&A with the current owner about things like the wiring, any easements, etc. It's usually a model contract too, so you can compare your copy to the published model contract. What's in these "few hundred pages"?

In California the seller discloses as much as possible to the buyer - i) house inspection and pest inspection, ii) disclosures from the county, state, utilities district, iii) advisories of risk of wildfire, lead paint, natural hazards, earthquake; and much more. This is so that the buyer has as little possible recourse to sue in the future for losses on the property. This behavior also enables faster real estate dea…

I don't see how you figure. You get the disclosures long after you make your offer (although you do have a contingency if you don't like what you see, I think). And the mandatory disclosure system opens you up to more risk of lawsuit, since if you fail to disclose something you, in the view of the legal system, reasonably should have known, that's grounds for a suit (compared to MA, where I used to live, where you're free not to make a disclosure at all so you can't be said to have omitted anything). Also, dealing with the title company and all that definitely seemed slower than the system I previously experienced where both sides had lawyers to hash out small details.

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#49
post #14

The most amazing thing about this to me is that as conceptually interesting as this contract is at a high level, and given that I started off interested in the document, about half way through my eyes were glazing over ;and I gave up. I have to wonder how lawyers do their job. I've read chapters of academic text for my own knowledge, but somehow this legal writing style crushes me every time.

I recently received a sentence where the judge copy pasted someone else's and midway there are names of people unrelated to the proceedings.

Apparently this sort of errors is common enough that the law has already support for handling them as "irrelevant", but this proved to me people seldomly read law stuff accurately.

Re: Contract for Sale of Soul

#50
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently bought a house in California and at some point a few hundred pages in I started to wonder about the wisdom of my insistence on reading everything. But it's straightforward enough to understand if you can tolerate the boredom.

A few hundred pages? Here in The Netherlands, the contract is maybe five pages, then a list of things that will stay in the house and finally a list of Q&A with the current owner about things like the wiring, any easements, etc. It's usually a model contract too, so you can compare your copy to the published model contract. What's in these "few hundred pages"?

Denmark - several documents probably around 40-50 pages in my case.

What comprises the house - garden etc. size of different parts.

the house is shared with a neighbor, requirements for the sharing of house with neighbor.

what parts of the shared areas are yours (a walk in closet downstairs and some weird crawl space in a wall)

known problems with house that the seller has told me of.

all the things you named.

An evaluation of the house condition for insurance purposes.

on edit: formatting

Post reply on HN