Am I Entitled To Deposit Money? Buyer Backing Out Of Deal

[Sakeri]

I am currently in a signed contract with a buyer of my home.
The buyer is past the date for the mortgage commitment letter-and has now stated that they are unable to obtain financing. I have spent about $1000.00 on inspections and certifications for my new home, and my husband has taken off a week of work in order to replace the siding on our current home by the date our buyers requested, and we agreed to do that, but now my husband has lost about $700 of a paycheck because of that, to cover OUR end of the deal. Now they are backing out because they do not qualify for financing.
Are we entitled to any of the deposit money? They did have a mortgage contingency, but I think that this is rather unfair that we have fulfilled a COSTLY part of our end of the deal, and they are backing out at this point.
Please advise, Thank you so much.

[Beamard]

If the buyer is in default of a covenant of the contract you are free to inform him he is out of contract and move to take the deposit--or whatever the default language of your contract says is can be done.There is absolutely no legal reason you need to grant him an extension--there may be solid business reasons to do so but thats a different matter--in my book if he wants an extension then he need to put up MORE NONrefundable deposit.Wheter or not you can recover inspection costs depends on fine print--but its hard to recover past a deposit when a buyer defaults--and ofter thats what the language says---The buyer is very likley to have a different view.The agent is very likley loyal to the commission!Caution: depending upon the fine print and just how/who pulls the plug you could be liable to pay the agent for a commission for a deal that doesn't go thru--read the fine print!

[Heathleah]

Additionally, are we necessary to permit the customers to try to be eligible for funding through another organization at this time? Our agent set the customer touching OUR mortgage agent, who agreed to try to have them right into a mortgage. I'd actually choose they provide up today. This entire deal continues to be this type of clutter in different ways that I'd rather remain in my 700 S.F. House with my loved ones of 4 for that next two decades than proceed this continuing fight (Is not that terrible?)

[Adalbert]

Moving forward--insist upon hefty depost and insist upon clear terms if the the buyer fails to perform that you get depost with no further delays and there is no commission due if there is no completed sale..

[Eugen]

I was right with you until the "albeit ... unmannerly."I would appreciate your pointing out where I was "rude".

[Chago]

You're free to be offended, but I'm not sure what you expect from us when we can't see the contract and don't have all the facts.I'm sorry that I missed the "new" in "new home".As for my comment about assuming there's a financing contingency, I make comments as I go through the posts and don't always go back to edit if the relevant info is revealed farther down."due to weather (our realtor "forgot" to put weather permitting...another topic.......she really hasn't been very helpful) he was unable to get it done until this week--our contractor will not do it now b/c of the cold....hence, he has to do it himself."This was a little difficult to follow.
In any case, you don't say what your contract says about what kind of damages either party may seek in the event of a default under the contract.
(As an aside, I can't imagine why it would take a week to re-side a 700-s.f. home, which is pretty tiny, but that's neither here nor there.)"The contract is a typical form, i thought they were generally the same as far as the fine print goes..."Okay, but *what does it say* about the buyer's obligations? If their contingency is specific as to the type of loan and rate and they cannot qualify for that and have complied with the terms of the contract when it comes to diligently pursuing that loan, notifying you and providing you with evidence that they cannot qualify .... then they may have fulfilled their end of the bargain. If the contingency drops off if they don't provide proper required info either way by X date, then you're free to hold them to the terms of the contract and push for closing, or to terminate the contract and demand the release of the deposit to you (assuming your damages in the contract are limited to the deposit, which I can't know from here).".... so we have the right to say the contract is null and void."Your post wasn't about whether you can terminate the contract or not, but whether you're entitled to seek their deposit.
Again, you have to look to your contract terms there.
I can't know what they say from here.

[Andray]

Personally if the buyer failed--and you gave him a bit of extra time--that should be enough--he defaulted and thats that?

[Arndell]

?Quite possibly it is a misinterpretation of your tone. I believe you are trying to be helpful, and I do appreciate your time in replying to my post. However, I also felt rather insulted by your posts. Just some hopefully constructive criticism. Your repeated comments to read what my contract says tells me that you weren't really listening to my questions, and seemed to be assuming that I didn't take the time to read my contract. I'm no lawyer, and obviously am ignorant on this topic, but I felt belittled and talked down upon.?You?re not the first person to come to a legal board like this and feel like the answers are cold and unfriendly.
However, the law isn?t based on feelings.
I can assure you that Fxston as a volunteer has been providing feedback for months that has been helpful to many posters.
Many a time we have to remind posters to read their contracts.
We as volunteers here can not change the content of poster?s contracts.I too read the post pretty much like I think Fxston did.
You were complaining about the unfairness and COSTLINESS of your end of the deal? the deal with your BUYER.
Now that you?ve clarified that you were also buying a new home, that part really has nothing to do with your problems of selling your current home and it distorted your first post. ?So, they have backed out. After talking it over with my husband, we have decided to leave well enough alone.
Call us "softies"...but we feel bad for the people!?It?s possible you could go after their deposit if they didn?t meet the contracts timeframes.
Small claims court might be the answer.
I suspect it is going to take the signatures of both the seller and buyer to release that deposit. Some people react and make decisions more tuned to ?feelings?, for good or bad.
Sometimes they flat get in the way of smart decision making.

[Pelham]

"we can assume there's a financing contingency in the contract, "--You are correct, as I stated in my original message."..."I have spent about $1000.00 on inspections and certifications for my new home...."I don't know what inspections you're talking about, but if the buyer wants an inspection, where I am the buyer pays for his-her own inspection..."As I said....Inspections and certifications for my NEW home. Because if our buyers back out of the transaction, we are unable to purchase our NEW home until we have sold our own home....as we are contingent on selling our current home to buy a home."It's likely not the buyer's problem if your husband chooses to take off work (unpaid) to do something vs. hire a contractor."But that wouldn't be any sort of reason to keep the deposit money? due to weather (our realtor "forgot" to put weather permitting...another topic.......she really hasn't been very helpful) he was unable to get it done until this week--our contractor will not do it now b/c of the cold....hence, he has to do it himself.The contract is a typical form, i thought they were generally the same as far as the fine print goes... I feel as though you are talking down to me, and I'm rather insulted... I have read the contract, and from what I understand, we are past the mortgage commitment dates we agreed on with our buyers, so we have the right to say the contract is null and void.
I also feel we are entitled to deposit money because they did not meet the mortgage commitment date and NOW, after such date, are backing out....... Anyways, thanks for your reply.

[Kendryk]

?My agent is going to relist our property tomorrow, so I do not believe she has considered requiring payment of commision on the broken deal. Hopefully the next deal will go through without a hitch! I'll just consider this a practice run. Thanks so much!?Unless you were at the end of your prior listing, you prior listing should still be valid.
Your agent is moving quickly to benefit herself by getting your listing extended.
(After all, if you were unhappy, she could lose the listing to a new agent you might choose.) And to be honest, she doesn?t want to see any legal battles, because that would forestall her being able to get her paycheck? her commission.If it were me, I?d be seriously evaluating her abilities to handle a sale representing you the seller.
Because she didn?t get the best language in this purchase contract, I?d be considering a new agent.