Quote:
Originally Posted by frayedends
You would require a seller to spend money for an inspection and then still walk? That’s unethical.
In this case we still don’t know what the contract says. It is unclear what the seller is allowed to do for inspection issues. Most of us are used to seeing contracts that allow the buyers to walk for inspection issues. That is so often what happens. I’ve seen buyers get cold feet and walk using the inspection clause for really silly little fixes.
But it seems in this case the seller has the option to fix the issue. Not only that, regardless of people thinking “there’s no way to know it was fixed “, it certainly could have been a small amount of moisture from a broken sprinkler and the seller could have had it all fixed according to the contract. If so the buyer should fulfill the contract. I’m sorry but I have little empathy for people that don’t understand what they are signing. I do have empathy for the buyers husband situation. That sucks. But screwing the seller isn’t the answer.
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How is the seller being screwed? It appears that the sales contract is only a few weeks old. Unless the seller can prove a significant financial loss, they can just put the house back on the market without losing anything except a few weeks. If the contract had an unusual deposit or inspection clause, the licensed broker had a fiduciary duty to explain it to the unsophisticated buyer. But, if it is a standard sales contract, the broker has no right to tell the buyer that they cannot get money back that is being held in escrow by a third party. And, this situation does not appear to be a buyer with cold feet. The escrow money is not a penalty to be used by the broker to force a sale.
The OP's original question was "can the $10,000 deposit money be refunded"? The answer to that question is most likely yes.