A Wellington couple have managed to do what many who bought at the market’s peak are dreaming of: escape a new-home contract.

A Miami-based arbitrator ruled in January that the contract Kurt and Micheline Moeding inked with Kolter Homes violated federal law, and that they should get their $76,114 deposit back. The couple signed up for the $629,580 home at Kolter’s Verano community in Port St. Lucie in 2006 – before home values plummeted.

The tool the Moedings used to get out of the deal is a technicality in the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act.

The law requires developers to make time-consuming reports to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, unless they claim exemptions. The exemption Kolter used: It promised to complete homes at Verano within two years of signing a sale contract.

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