What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
So, I’m in the middle of a purchase agreement, 4 days past the closing date without clear title from the seller and the listing agent decides to cancel my purchase agreement after I had requested for an extension of time even though they clearly do not have clear title to present to me. So, it really is on the listing agents end to provide me with clear title and I spoke with the Listing Bank’s internal REO Asset Mgr who even stated to me that if they do not have clear title to close then they cannot close and he was fine with the extension. Now, after 4 days of going back and forth and missing our scheduled closing date and the listing agent refused my request for Time Extension in order to obtain clear title, the listing agent somehow got the bank to cancel on me and put the property back on the market as active listing.
Upon seeing this, my agent (buyers agent) panicked and was told by the listing agent that we need to make a larger $5,000 deposit towards escrow, show a more documented proof of funds and make another offer to the bank in order to proceed. This means we would be starting the process all over again and praying to see if the listing agent doesn’t do anything shifty to turn down my offer.
Can a listing agent cancel on me at any time without my receiving / signing a Demand to cancel?
How could they cancel when they do not have clear title?
Don’t I get to see some sort of “Right to Perform”?
Should I contact the bank and find out what happened? How they canceled?
What recourse do I have?
We were ready to move forward, however when we called our Escrow Agent she stated that there was not a clear title. The listing agent keeps coming back and is telling us there is a clear title, but even as of yesterday our escrow officer still says she does not have the right paperwork to clear title and that it is still clouded.
We have also been talking with the Asset Manager at the bank and he even stated on the phone if they did not have clear title that we could not proceed and would have to sign an addendum for the extension.
So just to be clear we were supposed to close on the 15th of June, we received a demand to close escrow on the 15th, that stated we had 24 hours to perform. We did not perform because we were still told that title was clouded. We refused to sign the piece of paper and waited for an addendum for a time extension as per our conversation with the Asset Manager. We received two addendum forms from the listing agent, unsigned by the bank. Once addendum gave us to the 26th of June to perform and required us to remove all our contingencies. The other form stated the bank would charge us $100 per day, as per our original contract. Well, there was no way we were going to pay for title not being clear. So we revised the two pages to read differently, one stating we would not remove our contingencies, would not pay $100 per day, and wanted 7 days time from the date we received a letter from the escrow officer stating title was cleared.
The listing agent writes us back and tells us he is playing games and will cancel the next day. Then as it stands he gets our two pages rejected from the bank the next morning and proceeds to re-list the property on the MLS. Hopefully this offers greater insight.
Sue under some bad faith theory or specific performance. You’ll need an attorney to evaluate the situation to determine the best course of action. Before you start selling out cash, determine what exactly do you want here and how much you are willing to spend for the property.
You can also file a complaint against the agent with the state board that regulates real estate agents, but that won’t get you the property.
If we file a lawsuit, what could we even stand to gain? Are we just talking about the property or something more…ie. money for damages, time wasted, lawyer fees, etc. We were expecting to make at least 80k + after we made repairs to the property and re-sell it on the market to a retail buyer.
We also do not have thousands of dollars to pay an attorney right now, all our money is tied up…what other options could we pursue?
You are entitled to damages, especially if they acted in bad faith. You could sue for the property and force them to sell to you plus legal costs.
You don’t have any real options if you don’t have any money. The AG won’t take this on as a consumer protection issue. You can file with a complaint with the agent’s regulators, but that will not get you the property or money.
You could try contacting the bank representative, explain what happened. Perhaps they will move the listing to another agency and a different listing agent.
You can also complain to the broker in charge for the listing agency. If the broker in charge has a rogue agent on staff, he needs to know about it and fix it. Maybe the broker will assign the listing to another agent and work to get your contract reinstated with the appropriate extension to your settlement date.