Buyer agent made an error in judgment

[James McGovern]

A buyer agent made an error in judgment and caused the buyer to lose their deposit. Should the buyer sue the agent?

[Dan H.]

Quote from @James McGovern:

@Joe S. 4k deposit. The agent forgot to include a clause in the offer that before they buy that they need to sell

 If you can prove that you requested the agent to put in this clause and agent did not, my view is the agent has some responsibility.

However, you signed (or e-signed) the offer.  You had the opportunity to catch the error.   You also have some responsibility.

I personally believe your responsibility is greater than the agent’s.   You should review the offer and confirm everything you want in the offer is present.

I believe the broker should realize that the agent made an error that cost the client money and make an offer to compensate for some of the client’s lost Earnest Deposit (ED).  Hopefully you realize your role in this mistake and recognize it is not fair to expect the broker to make you whole.

I once had 7 refi and one purchase close on the same day. I have used the same escrow on multiple purchases and refinances. On every purchase except this one they look at the OO check box and if not OO ask if there is current tenants and escrow the security deposit. This time they did not do it and we did not catch it. When the issue was pointed out shortly after the close, The escrow company tried to reach out to the seller for the money he rightfully owed but possibly legally did not owe. The seller refused to transfer the deposit. I possibly could have gone after the escrow company for a mistake, but the biggest mistake was mine to not catch the error (and maybe having 8 closings in a single day which I will never do again as I believe it heavily attributed to us not catching the error and 6 hours of signings is too much). We did not go after the escrow company because it was mostly our fault and learned a few lessons (thoroughly go through the documents, always check for security deposit transfer, and do not have 8 closes in a day).

I provide this example to show ownership of my role in the issue and hope you see the similarities.

Good luck