Drafting by Committee Will Get You a Camel

Drafting by Committee Will Get You a Camel

There is an old saying, if God had designed a horse by committee, he would have got a camel. Sometimes, too many people get involved in a project and something that should be simple becomes overly complicated. I have often raised this over the years when serving on non-profit boards and the board is asked to review and approve a contract. So many times, a room full of the community’s brightest business leaders and lawyers will scrutinize a simple document, line by line, and suggest changes after the board’s counsel, executive director and chairman, or all 3, have already carefully reviewed and negotiated the entire agreement. An agreement by committee, I always argued, was a camel.

I was reminded again of the agreement by committee recently as I negotiated the purchase of property from a religious organization. In this case, the organization’s board could not decide what it wanted to do. The organization was represented by 3 or 4 highly qualified brokers and a pro-bono attorney (who did not have a real estate background). So, it became obvious that we were dealing with 2 committees in negotiating the contract: 1) the organization’s board, and 2) the broker/attorney advisers.

We had no direct contact with the board. All communication initially went through one of the brokers. But, communication came back from any one of the brokers and the signals were different. It was difficult to know exactly what the seller wanted. Consequently, negotiations eventually broke off. I thought that there was a price gap. My client thought that the disconnect was something else.

A few months later, the original broker asked me to resubmit the last letter of intent we had provided and confirm the purchase price. I did so. The broker then asked me to confirm a few other terms which were specified in the LOI. I finally told him that the LOI was clear, but perhaps we should present a contract and spell out all the terms to clarify. Instead, we had a conference call with all the brokers. This was the first time I was able to speak to all of them. They explained how they were all “volunteering” to help this organization and how they would appreciate my help in getting the deal done. I said that the best way we could get this done would be to move on to a contract and stop talking about a theoretical deal. They agreed and I finally was able to prepare and send a contract.

However, they were silent for a few weeks. I think that they had a few calls, maybe even meetings with my client as the client told me that the board was concerned about having to vacate the property on short notice since closing was tied to approvals. We weren’t exactly sure, but it would be good to actually talk to someone about this as we could easily work it out. But, the brokers needed to talk to the board and come up with a solution. I wasn’t sure who was going to come up with this solution, but if they asked me, I could do it in a second. The brokers’ solution was for all of us to meet at the property. A meeting was scheduled and then re-scheduled 3 times until it was finally cancelled. No reason for the meeting or the cancellation was ever provided. Finally, the broker emailed me to tell me that they were solving a problem and it would involve my client signing some sort of note at closing.

Remember, each person on this broker committee is well respected and highly qualified. But for some reason, they got brain freeze here and missed the obvious solution. Perhaps they got so confused by their client, the board, in trying to address the issue, that they created a camel. Regardless, after all the delay, I offered a simple, short paragraph to the contract, and buyer agreed to enter into a post-closing occupancy agreement allowing the seller to occupy the property for up to 120 days after closing. Suddenly, we had a horse again.

Working with others to prepare a contract absolutely can be done. Two heads are better than one. But, if you try to do it as a committee where no one takes responsibility or the lead, it isn’t going to happen. Nothing against camels, but they have no place in your documents.