Contract review
Contract review caught $80K hidden penalty
Pre-signing review caught a buried 25% pre-payment penalty clause. Negotiated removal before signing.
Recovered
$80K
Duration
1 months
Outcome
Pre-litigation win
What the client was facing.
Client was about to sign a $320,000 USD pre-construction contract for a Playa del Carmen condo. The Spanish version (which is the binding text in Mexico) included a clause not in the English version: a 25% penalty if the buyer accelerated payments — a provision designed to lock in the developer's financing structure and punish faster-than-scheduled equity contributions.
The strategy we deployed.
Side-by-side review revealed the discrepancy. We drafted a red-line eliminating the clause and added explicit language guaranteeing buyer's right to accelerate without penalty.
How it ended.
Developer accepted the red-line. Client retained the right to accelerate payments and avoided $80,000 USD in potential penalty exposure that they had no idea existed.
Your situation deserves the same rigor.
Every case is different, but the methodology holds: strategic pressure, credible escalation, recovery.