In most cases: they don’t.
Not legally, that is, and not without a fight from the seller, and potentially serious repercussions.
I’ve been asked a few times in the past month either “what happens when a buyer won’t close?” or, “how can a buyer get out of a firm deal.”
Let’s look at the legal grey areas, and I’ll give you a few case studies to chew on…
Legal grey area.
That’s what I referred to in the intro, but when you really think about it, isn’t most of the law some sort of grey area?
Yes, we have laws. Those laws are black and white.
But most of the law – interpretation, enforcement, and discussion, falls into that grey area. Isn’t that why we have trials, instead of just throwing the book at somebody on the spot?
In any event, when it comes to the laws that relate to the closing of a real estate transaction, much of the interpretation, and practice, fall into that grey area.
Every time I’m asked a hypothetical about a buyer wanting out of a transaction, I usually say, “It’s a grey area.”
It all depends on what a buyer or seller wants to do, how much time and money they want to spend arguing their position, and which side will give up first.
For example, if a buyer and a seller enter into a transaction, each in good faith, and the buyer changes his or her mind and wants out of the deal, you might simply say, “That’s not grounds to do so. It’s black and white.” But it’s up to that buyer to prove, often with the help of a lawyer, that there was some sort of misrepresentation on the part of the seller, or some sort of harm caused, that would, could, or should allow the buyer an out.
Now you might say, “Well that’s not fair – they’re in the wrong, and they’re trying to argue their way out of it.”
Right. Welcome to the legal world…
When it comes to real estate transactions where one party wants out of the deal, I would say that 90% of the time, it’s the buyer, as opposed to the seller. And when it’s the buyer, I would say that 90% of the time, he or she has simply changed his or her mind.
That buyer might argue there’s something wrong with the property, or some sort of misrepresentation was made, but it’s almost always a case of a change of mind.
So when can a buyer legally get out of a transaction?
In the pre-construction condominium world, there’s a government-mandated 10-day rescission period, or “cooling off period” as it’s most commonly referred to.
The government mandates this, in my opinion, because these purchases are often made with more emotion, and less thought, than purchases in the resale world. There’s a also a lot of legalese involved, which the buyer would have his or her lawyer review during that 10-day period.
Of course, in practice, many buyers are too cheap and/or stupid to pay the $2,000 or-so to have a lawyer review the Agreement of Purchase & Sale, and these are the buyers who usually get stuck with the massive closing costs and hidden fees upon completion.
There’s a reason that there’s a law mandating the use of a seat-belt, even though it’s there to save your life: people might not use it.
By the same token, the government has mandated that 10-day cooling-off period for pre-construction condos because they have to force buyers to be smart, think things through, consult a lawyer, and really consider whether they want to follow through with the transaction.
In the resale world, a buyer can get out of an agreement if the agreement is conditional, and depending on how the condition is worded, they might not have to do anything to get out of that deal.
Here’s how I word my home inspection clause, for example:
This Offer is conditional upon the inspection of the subject property by a home inspector at the Buyer’s own expense,
and the obtaining of a report satisfactory to the Buyer in the Buyer’s sole and absolute discretion. Unless the Buyer
gives notice in writing delivered to the Seller personally or in accordance with any other provisions for the delivery of
notice in this Agreement of Purchase and Sale or any Schedule thereto within two (2) business days from acceptance
hereof, that this condition is fulfilled, this Offer shall be null and void and the deposit shall be returned to the Buyer in
full without deduction.
Note the words “sole and absolute discretion.”
That means there’s no arguing over what’s material or what isn’t. It’s simply up to the buyer.
But more importantly, note the section that reads, “Unless the Buyer gives notice in writing…”
This means that the deal automatically falls through, unless the buyer provides a Waiver of the condition, or a Notice of Fulfillment of that condition.
Buyers often ask me things like, “Does the seller get a copy of the inspection?” Or, “If we find something wrong, can the seller object? Can the seller opt to fix the issue, and force us to go ahead?”
These questions, and these points, are moot, when you have a clause like the one above, where the deal automatically falls through. This is a condition precedent, as opposed to a condition subsequent, and it’s how all clauses should be written by buyers.
Now, let’s turn our attention to the real question of “When can a buyer get out of a deal?”
Let’s look at when the buyer has no real right to do so, but wants to, usually because they change their mind.
First, let’s look at the case where the buyer changes his or her mind, during a conditional period.
Let’s say a buyer purchases a condominium conditional on the lawyer’s review of the Status Certificate.
But that night, the buyer gets cold feet, and wants out of the deal.
No problem, right? The buyer has a condition – they can get out of the deal.
True.
However, the buyer needs to ensure that they use that condition, and not simply change their mind. And this is where things get interesting.
If the buyer, the morning after the deal is reached, does not provide the deposit cheque, then the seller can sue the buyer for not following through with the transaction.
Instead, the buyer should provide the deposit cheque, which will be held in trust by the listing brokerage, go through the motions to have the Status Certificate reviewed, not sign the Waiver or Notice of Fulfillment, and then when the deal falls through, ask for a Mutual Release, and the deposit back.
It sounds crazy, I know. Most of you would say, “I would never hand over the cheque and then try to get it back.”
But ask a lawyer, and they’ll all tell you this is the way it’s done. If you don’t provide the cheque, the seller can sue you. It’s cut and dry.
So now let’s look at firm deals, where there is no condition, and where the buyer wants out of the deal.
Unlike in some countries, or on TV, or as some media inaccurately report, if the buyer doesn’t close the deal on the scheduled closing date, the deposit does not automatically default to the seller.
In fact, under REBBA, there are only three ways in which the deposit, being held in a listing brokerage’s trust account, can be released:
1) Successful completion of a transaction.
2) Court order.
3) Mutual release.
So if a deal is scheduled to close on June 5th, the buyer says, “I’m not closing,” and the days tick by, at no point can the seller access that deposit, unless a court orders the funds to be released to the seller, or the buyer signs a mutual release and forfeits the deposit.
But just to throw another wrinkle into the equation – consider this: at no time can a brokerage hold two deposits for the same property.
So if that deal, that’s scheduled to close on June 5th, doesn’t close, and the seller finds another buyer, they can’t sell their home until they sign a mutual release for the first deal – either giving the deposit back to the buyer, or providing for some agreed-upon restitution.
What this means, is that for the seller to say, “I’ll never give you that deposit back,” is often an empty threat. More often than not, the seller needs to sell his or her house, and often has no choice but to sign the mutual release, and allow the deposit to be returned to the buyer. The seller is forced to sue the original buyer afterwards.
Let me give you an example.
I’ve told this story before, I believe in a blog about “stigma” of houses.
A colleague of mine had a listing in North Toronto a few years back, and it was sold to a buyer for $1,500,000.
The buyer, about a week after signing the agreement, said he wanted out of the deal.
The seller balked, and said “See you at closing.”
The buyer said, “I will not close, so you’re wasting your time making threats. You’re best to let me out of the deal, and get the property back up for sale.”
The seller balked again.
The closing date came along two months later, and the buyer refused to close.
For a couple of weeks, the seller waited out the buyer. But the seller needed to sell; they were closing a purchase of their own in a few weeks, and needed a firm deal to get bridge financing.
So the seller signed a mutual release, and let the buyer out of the deal, intending to sue them down the line.
Unfortunately, when the “FOR SALE” sign went back up, the market didn’t respond well. This was the point I made about stigma – the buyer pool wondered why the house was being sold again six weeks later.
The house was sold again, conditionally, and that deal fell through when a buyer got cold feet.
The third time was the charm, however, and the house was sold firm. But it was only sold for $1,400,000.
The deal closed, and then the seller sued the original buyer for the $100,000 difference.
They settled out of court for $50,000.
The original buyer had zero right to get out of that deal.
The seller was 100% entitled to that $100,000 difference between the original purchase price, and the eventual sale price.
But note that the buyer has to take legal action, which takes time, and money.
I’ve only had a buyer back out of a deal once.
I sold a condo, conditionally, and the next morning, my client called me and said that he had changed his mind.
I told him what I told you guys earlier in this blog post – that he should provide the deposit cheque, go through the motions with the condition, and not provide a waiver.
He said, “That’s the smart thing to do. But I don’t believe for a second that the seller is going to sue me. Plus, I have you as my agent, and you can talk our way out of this. I know you can.”
And so that’s what I did.
I called the listing agent, told her I was sorry, but my client wasn’t going to follow through, and based on how hot the condo market was (this was 3-4 years ago), she said that she was disappointed, but she knew she would resell it.
She ended up selling it for $3,000 less than my client had contracted to purchase it a week earlier, but they didn’t sue my client. For $3,000, I don’t know that anybody would spend the time and money.
So what’s the take-away from these two stories, and all my preamble?
It’s all one big grey area.
Ask me “can a buyer get out of a deal?” and I’ll give you a multitude of different answers, depending on the parties involved, and the situation at hand.
Just remember that if you’re a seller, you need to get that deposit cheque when you sell your home!
It’s a lot easier for a buyer to walk away from a deal when they haven’t provided a deposit cheque (assuming it’s a bank draft or certified cheque) than after they’ve already handed their money over to the listing brokerage, where it’s being held in trust.
If you’re a seller in this market, and you find yourself with multiple offers, you’re crazy to accept the highest offer without a cheque. If the buyer changes his or her mind the next morning, you’re either chasing down the other buyers from the night before, or you’re going back on the market, and doing it all over again. If that’s the case, the stigma applies, and you’re almost guaranteed to get less for your property.
If you’re a buyer in this market, don’t ever assume you can get out of a firm deal, no matter how strong your resolve, or how big and tough your lawyer is.
Long Time Realtor
at 8:59 am
He who has the gold rules. The deposit is gold.
Appraiser
at 9:07 am
Did anyone really think that 33% was sustainable? Not even me. ‘Bout time for a little pull-back. Sanity might be returning.
Not there yet.
And oh yeah, whoever has the gold rules!
Mike
at 9:39 am
In your example where your client was sued for $100,000 but settled for $50,000, it’s not as cut and dry as you make it out to be.
Yes, your client would be on the hook for the loss in the sale, however the Seller must make all attempts to mitigate losses as soon as the deficiency is found. In this case, as soon as the Buyer said that they were going to walk away from the transaction they Seller had to start to take reasonable steps to reduce their chances for a loss by putting their putting their house up for sale again.
The fact the Seller entered into another failed transaction also mitigates the Buyers exposure. You’d have a really hard time convincing a court that the $100,000 loss was a direct result of the Buyers actions given the amount of time that transpired between the Sellers knowledge of the breach and the loss being incurred.
Ralph Cramdown
at 10:32 am
The breach doesn’t occur when the buyer threatens to walk, it occurs when he doesn’t close on the day. At that point, assuming time is of the essence, the deal is dead. Before that point, it’s hard to sell the house to someone else. “Yeah, I already sold it to another guy, but don’t worry — I’m pretty sure he’s not going to close.”
The real problem is that your typical residential contract doesn’t specify what happens to the deposit with a quick little “If for any reason the buyer fails to complete the deal by the designated time, time being of the essence, the deposit is immediately forfeit to the seller as liquidated damages.”
The industry loves it when this clause is absent and REBBA rules apply with this “mutual release” crap for a deal that’s already stone-cold-dead, because if the buyer were to actually forfeit the deposit, that’d probably be one less deal and two fewer sides for the industry.
Bit of a rookie move by the buyer in this case, signing the release without extracting a promise by the seller not to sue.
Mike
at 11:57 am
Ralph,
I agree with what you’re saying.
As soon as the Buyer informed the Seller that they had no intention of closing the Seller should have had their lawyer issue a letter to the Buyer and begin negotiating the wind down of the contract. A simple letter stating, “Seller agrees to release the Buyer from the Contract and return the deposit monies in exchange for the Buyer accepting responsibility for any costs or losses the Seller may incur” At that point the Seller would have taken reasonable steps to minimise any loss.
As the Buyer, I would have argued to the court that in telling the Seller when I did of my intentions, I had signaled my intention to minimise any damages to the Seller. As such, while violating the contract, damages could have been reduced or avoided.
You’re right though, the OREA contract is woefully vague and weak. Most of the language goes towards discussing how and how much, the agents will be paid. Lawyers love these kind of contracts because they can argue intent for days on them. Agents love them because it makes them feel relevant in the sales process.
You’d honestly think that there would be some sort of escrow agreement in addition to the PSA.
sally Fiver
at 11:42 am
How can the Seller attempt to mitigate the loss without any written proof from Buyer of non-intention to purchase? Since the Buyer only verbally indicated that he will not close (and decided to wait it out), then the Seller couldn’t initiate any action… It would have been prudent for the Seller (seller’s lawyer) to write to the buyer to restate the buyer’s comments back to the buyer and force the buyer to provide a written response (re-confirmation) of intention to purchase (lets say within 10 days) and that failure to respond by the buyer, would then (and only then) give the seller to re-market the house…and of course also seek the $100k compensation later.
Mike
at 12:01 pm
I agree with you, but I wouldn’t have given 10-days; more like 24-hours.
The point is, the Seller had to take some sort of action based on what the Buyer had said.
The court looks to see what you’ve done to protect yourself the moment you become aware of a possible breach in contract.
Ralph Cramdown
at 12:36 pm
If you get lucky, the buyer will respond with an executed document saying that the deal is dead. But you can’t just give him a negative option (“if I don’t hear from you, the deal is dead.”) Until you’ve got written confirmation from the buyer that the deal is dead, you don’t have marketable title. You might get away with it (but your agent, if smart, wouldn’t be trying again to sell the property without that paper). And woe betide you if two different buyers show up to close. Buyer 1: “I changed my mind.” Buyer 2: “What do you mean, you’d already sold the house?” Your lawyer: “The flat fee I quoted you is no longer valid.”
Mike
at 1:34 pm
Yes, the point, is the Seller did all they could to minimise their damages.
If the Buyer tells you that they want out and you send them a letter giving them reasonable conditions to back out of the deal (cover Sellers cost or losses if any) but the Buyer refuses to sign it then they would be on the hook for any losses attributed by sale after the original close date. The key is that as a Seller you’ve done everything you can to execute the sale as well as mitigate any potential losses that may occur as a result of the Buyers actions.
Maiden
at 9:25 am
I’m the hand, I’ve resold my house 2 weeks after a buyer defaulted for $10,000 more as the market is hotter and he still hasn’t signed my release.
Now I may lose that $10,000 BECAUSE I don’t have the release.
In this case I can now sue for the deposit AND the 10 grand I lost plus other expenses like more mortgage payments?
More importantly, I cannot sell until he signs correct? So won’t he make himself look pretty bad in court as I rack up more losses?
Boris
at 12:45 pm
Who in the world would accept any offer without a deposit cheque? And what broker would ever make an offer, esp in a competitive situation, without a deposit cheque?
Is it legal to ask for or accept a deposit in hard cash, with a receipt of course, possibly notarized?
Boris
at 12:45 pm
Or a bitcoin deposit?
Ralph Cramdown
at 5:18 pm
Hey, if you want a 20% deposit paid in BTC or in blue M&Ms, in the back left booth at Sneaky Dee’s at high noon, you can ask. At least it’d be somewhere to hang out while waiting five hours for the transaction to appear on the blockchain. But not in cocaine — that would be illegal.
The buyer can accede to your wishes, or not, and you can accept his offer, or not.
Boris
at 10:18 am
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/12075825/nasdaq-blockchain-share-trade-bitcoin-technology.html
Paully
at 4:15 pm
Why would anyone want out of a deal? Everyone knows that Real Estate only goes up.
Alknan
at 8:51 pm
You should ask pur neighbors if prices only goes up. 10 years declining
Alexander
at 5:31 pm
A question – can seller’s agent sue buyer for the lost commission even if the seller does not sue ? There are 4 parties there – buyer and agent and seller and agent…
A
at 5:47 pm
Actually, the law is not really that grey: the seller can try to sue for damages but must prove that damage has been sustained/incurred.
It is the outcome that is grey because it depends in part on what parties do practically.
Anne
at 5:43 pm
What about when the property is damaged due to an unforeseen event? For example, a property in my neighbourhood sold. One week before closing, it caught fire (15 firetrucks, hole in the roof, substantial damage, no injuries or deaths). It sat vacant for months then was torn down and rebuilt completely. We assumed (but don’t know) the buyer got out the deal and the seller got his insurance company to demolish and rebuild. It is nearing completion and we are curious to see if the new home will be listed.
Sandra
at 6:18 pm
Anne, in a case of a fire before closing, this can actually be a benefit to the buyer, believe it or not. They can close while accepting the insurance claim and they can have a newly finished house. The insurance company works with the buyer (buyer must ensure there is enough coverage before going this route!) I sold a house which had a kitchen fire one week before closing. After I explained his options, the buyer was ecstatic to find he was going to get a brand new kitchen.
Rami
at 9:28 am
What is the seller refuses to fulfill the contract. i.e The contract lists a another viewing, which the seller ask on closing date and the seller refuses. The buyer is then not comfortable with closing though he has tranferred the money to the laywer. Which gray area would this circumstance land in ?
Rami
at 9:29 am
correction: which the Buyer ask on closing date
Ashok
at 9:40 am
You said, “t’s a lot easier for a buyer to walk away from a deal when they haven’t provided a deposit cheque (assuming it’s a bank draft or certified cheque) than after they’ve already handed their money over to the listing brokerage, where it’s being held in trust.”
But, you explained in detail earlier – that instead refusing outright to deposit the draft, easier and legal way is to handover the draft and then not sign the waiver afterwards and let the deal fall through automatically. Now I am confused. Can you please clarify? Thank you very much!
Andy
at 8:38 pm
I would like to know if the sellers agent can sue buyer for backing out for their commission?
Datta
at 5:59 pm
Before taking the possession, Buyer found that next door house has a same lot size and house size is only 100 sft less then the purchased house listed 20K less then purchased agreement.
Currently, it’s a Buyer’s market in Edmonton and please note that U of A area houses are old and price is based on only land size. Buyer and seller realtors failed to come to a conclusion to drop the price down. What’ would be best approach for the buyer to walk out from the purchased agreement without losing the deposit as buyer is losing in front 30K due to price has dropped in that area. If the seller does not want to negotiate the price can buyer go to the court?
John Smith
at 4:52 pm
need to be more clear on steps one can take if:
1) Cannot close a deal after a home purchase is made
2) What are legal repercussions
3) What conditions can be viewed as mitigating factors in not being able to close
I found the article to be too much about the author and not key information people are looking for. Need a good writer?
Andy
at 8:40 pm
I would like to know if sellers agent can sue buyer for commission for backing out of an offer. Can
William Larmond
at 1:57 am
what happens if there is no written contract, only a deposit.
John
at 5:44 am
Hi
What happens when you do receive the NOF? Can the buyer still get out of the deal?
Thanks
John
JJ
at 8:52 am
Hi, I have question.
I have signed for offer and gave tuen deposit $10,000
and after we has home inspection and we signed all paper work and closing date is in 2 month..
but we are having a difficult time kinda family issues so we have to cancel this deal…
can we still get back my deposit back?
Thank you
Maiden
at 9:33 am
Imagine the difficult time your Seller will go through when you don’t follow through.
Family issues isn’t a valid reason for not closing.
Angela Qari
at 7:10 am
I know of a buyer who was in a multiple offer situation and since his realtor who also acted as his mortgage agent advised him to go in firm. Note that he did not pre-qualifiy the buyer and did not give him an exact amount on how much he would actually qualify for.
They purchased the property for 1million exact. Another home had sold for a million. In the area.
The buyer did not give the 60k deposit and told the seller they wanted to back out the next day. The seller is threatening the buyer they will sue, and did not sign the release.
The buyer found out 4 days later the seller sold the property to someone else firm for 940k. The difference of 60k!!!! Now wants to sue the buyer for the 60k.
Is that allowed?
aa
at 10:22 pm
you can sue anyone for anything but it is never easy