Hi Dario,

Would appreciate if you can advise on the next course of action for my sis-in-law who is a first time home buyer. Here's the chronology of events :

1. Paid earnest deposit 3% directly to owner in the presence of agent (owner insisted deposit to be paid to him directly)

2. Agent issued Offer to Purchase form with additional clause "Subject to loan approval and deposit to be refunded if loan rejected". Both buyer and seller signed on 9/6/2012

3. There were some hiccups in her application and in the end the banker rejected her application verbally on 15/7/12.

4. Informed the owner of loan rejection but owner refused to refund the earnest deposit. Tried to ask the agent to talk to owner for refund.

5. Owner still refused, quoting that the grace period of 15 working days has lapsed as stated in the Offer Letter, hence he has the right to forfeit the earnerst deposit.

Would like to verify if the owner has the legal right to forfeit the earnest deposit? The bank issued an official rejection letter on 23/7/12 so does the additional written clause for "the deposit to be refunded if loan rejected" override the 15 days clause?

Thanks

Please refer below.....however I've only cropped and display the essential information.

Thanks a lot!! Will update my sis-in-law on this and she would definitely be pleased!