New one:
I have a couple trying to buy in Del Cerro.
They have looked at a lot of stuff and made a few (but only a few) offers.
Only one was accepted and seemed like it would work.
The seller accepted our offer and we opened escrow.
Our offer specified 17 days for investigation contingencies and the entire escrow for lending contingencies.
That means you have 17 calendar days after acceptance to investigate, inspect, and review disclosures.
If a new disclosure is made, then there is a minimum 5 day contingency period after that disclosure.
Also, the contingency removal is active.
That means that the buyer has to sign a piece of paper saying “I remove contingencies” before his deposit is in jeopardy.
So here is what happened:
On day 9 of escrow, the buyer was at a party with a friend who works at SD USD’s administration office.
This friend commented that he should not be moving to that location because it is across the street from a school scheduled to be closed.
The buyer did some research and confirmed with the district that the school was under consideration for closure.
He advised me of this on day 11 and canceled escrow.
I submitted the cancellation notice to the listing agent on day 12.
The listing agent (who is very well-known up there) called me and stated that this school was not on the list to be closed and that he had confirmed same.
Thats not the problem.
That would have actually been really good (had it been definitive and confirmable).
However, he then went on to say that since he had information contradicting our reason for cancellation, therefore the cancellation in bad faith and the deposit was forfeit.
I tried to research this issue directly with the district and was advised that they could not confirm that this school would close but that many schools in the area would be closing and they would have to wait and see.
The buyer was unimpressed (as I would be) with this maybe-we’re-going-to-close-the-school thing and declined to rescind his cancellation.
So now the buyer is small-claiming the seller and his agent for the amount of the deposit and then some.
To me this is unbelievable because the whole point of an investigation period is for confirming the property meets your requirements.
Almost any reason (including not liking the neighbors dog) are valid reasons to back out.
I am just astounded (more irritated really than surprised) to see a known agent act in such a way.
