My question involves real estate located in the State of: Maryland

This is quite bizarre and I am posting the situation as we determine what our next steps should be. We are looking for any insight that may help us along, and we appreciate any responses.

We are under contract, and in fact about 8 weeks into it at this point. The home is a foreclosure property owned by a bank, and we went into this sale understanding that it may take a significant amount of time to receive an accepted offer. Surprisingly it only took a week and a half to go under contract for this house.

The contract is naturally biased towards the seller being an as is contract, and provided certain stipulations for penalties should the buyer force the settlement date to be extended. We have worked very hard to make sure this would not be the case.

The only thing that is holding up the settlement at this point are several required repairs by our lender. We have had the home inspected and it was made clear that the seller would only entertain repairs that are required by the lender, which they are doing at this point. We have come to a verbal agreement only that the seller will replace the roof on the house, and we will be responsible for the remaining repairs.

We have presented an addendum outlining this agreement along with an extended settlement date to allow time for repairs, as requested by the seller's agent. Several days have passed since offering up the addendum with absolutely no response from the seller, NOT EVEN TO THE SELLER'S AGENT, with whom we communicate on a regular basis. At this point, we are approaching the original settlement date, with no signed addendum, and the seller's agent is suggesting that we present a new addendum with a further extended settlement date, which would extend our contract out an indefinite number of days.

My question here is: Do we have any options for compelling a response from the seller in terms of whether or not they will sign the existing addendum, or let the contract expire?

And, if they decide on the latter, do we have any option for legal action if the seller allows the contract to expire, and decides not to return our earnest money?

Obviously we prefer that we close on the house, and are very willing to extend the settlement date, to allow time for the repairs to take place, but at this point we cannot obtain any indication as to whether or not the seller is even alive?

Keep in mind here that the seller is a bank, so the communication structure is a bit complex. Us >> Buyer Agent >> Seller Agent >> Asset Manager >> Decision Board.

It seems as though the Decision Board shown above are the ones sleeping in this situation.

Anybody have any thoughts or advice on additional actions? Let me know if any more info is needed here.

Thank you all.