I have a house that i want to sell, so i engage an agent to do this. The agent found a buyer and we agreed to the price. The buyer wants to move in immediately and told me that the S&P he will sign in 3 months time cause the funds will be available then, so he will rent the house until the keys are handed over to him. i agreed, so the agent collected the deposit and i patiently waited.

Now come the end of the 3 months, the buyer wants to delay signing the S&P, which i do not agree. And to make matters worse, the agent told me that only part of the 2% deposit has actually been collected.

I want to ask, should the buyer lose interest in buying the house and decide not to pay the balance of the deposit, can I ask the agent to be accountable for the deposit ?

any legal action i can take here, and is it wise to do so ?
any suggestions on what steps should be taken here ?

This post has been edited by fussion: May 12 2008, 05:27 PM

You have anything in writing that buyer supposed to sign S&P in 3 months?

Do you have a tenancy agreement to cover this rental period?

Has the 'buyer' been paying rental these 3 months?

How much of the 2% deposit has actually been collected? I assume so far held by agent?

Yes, the booking receipt by the agent



Yes


Yes


Only about 0.4% collected according to the agent, and this amount held by the agent

This post has been edited by fussion: May 12 2008, 05:41 PM

well.. i thought i want to create new topic but seems it is related to me..
.. but in different shoes..


now.. i'm a buyer of 2nd hand house..
2moro w will meet agent to paid initial 2% before can proceed with snp thing.. then upon signing of SnP.. i will then pay another 8% balance.. the SnP to be completed withing 21 days..

question one. (dumb question suppose)
1. how do i secure that the 2% is to be paid to right person.. i mean.. if anything that can protect me if the agent is not real agent.? well he give me her name card and everything. 2% of hundred thousand properties is not small amount..

2. i'm not meeting with owner yet.. is it ok.. talk only through phone and visit the house twice...

3. should i ask to look further on documentation before i give my 2% deposit? is it safe? she ask me to write the check to her company (realtor).

4. how to know if this is scam.. .. (lesson learn from risk management )

@ganz,

1. U can skip the agent and provide the 10% d/p upon signing S&P in front of your lawyer. Thats safest way IMO.

2. Insist to the agent to meet the owner, else back off from the deal.

3. You need to meet the owner and ask owner to provide you with his S&P to prove that the property belong to the owner.

4. Hire a S&P lawyer upfront and get your lawyer to advise you accordingly. Dont be penny-wise, pound foolish.

k..i will call my lawyer this evening on this.. she(my laywer) said it seem everything is ok.. but then who knwo..

is it ok to skip the agent.....?

Legally, right now the tenancy agreement is your main binding agreement. At this moment, your relationship with the 'buyer' is landlord-tenant.

What is the duration in the tenancy agreement? Hope it doesn't say 1 year or something like that because you are bound to honor that.

Have you spoken to your agent?

Yes, i have spoken to the agent, and they are chasing for the remainder for for the deposit.
My question is can i hold them accountable for the full deposit since it is their responsibility to get it.

This post has been edited by fussion: May 13 2008, 10:13 AM

You can *try* to hold them accountable but in practice not worth the time and effort to sue them over such a sum.

The 2% is an earnest deposit which you can forfeit if the buyer backs out. If buyer does back out, how are you splitting the earnest deposit with agent?

lets hope i dont have to come to that, I am giving them until the end of this month to settle this mess.
i think i will cut the water and electricity supply should the buyer decide not to move out.
i doubt they will sue me since they are the one that owe me money in the first place.

If your agent has collected the 2% deposit it means that the document call offer to purchase has been sign by you and the buyer. Please refer back to the offer to purchase and there is a clause which says balance purchase price of 8% has to be paid when sign s&p within 14 days or in your case maybe the clause has been change to 90 days. I think you can proceed from here.