I signed a Sales Contract for the purchase of a Vacant Land, contingent upon the sale of my house. Century 21, the listing office, allowed the Vacant Land to Expire before my property sold, and the Seller of the Vacant Land refuses to relist it with them. The Seller is also refusing to sign the Earnest Money Release Form.

His attitude is that it took too long and in the meantime he could have sold it to someone else, therefore he feels entitled to keep the Earnest Money. His attitude is that if he cannot keep it, then I cannot have it back, either.

How can I force Century 21 to return the money to me? If by Court Order, how do I begin that process? Your email alert settings have been saved.

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How Do I Get Earnest Money Back If Seller Refuses To Sign Release??

Terminating Contracts and Earnest-Money Disputes | Legal FAQs for REALTORS® | For Texas REALTORS® | Texas Association of REALTORS

Highest rated Recent Oldest. Joe Shoemaker , Agent, Indianapolis, IN. Sun Jun 28, The details of your contract may stipulate a number of things related to the timeframe allocated to your contingency, whether the Earnest Money was refundable, etc.

Those details ought to be reviewed by your attorney. I am just a Real Estate Broker and am not permitted to provide legal advice. However, this issue is covered quite explicitly in the Indiana Real Estate License Law: The release process shall require the selling or listing principal broker to notify all parties at their last known address by certified mail that the earnest money deposit shall be distributed to the parties specified in the letter unless: If neither the buyer nor the seller initiates litigation or enters into a written release within sixty 60 days of the mailing date of the certified letter, the broker may release the earnest money deposit to the party identified in the certified letter.

Indiana Real Estate Commission; Rule 24; filed Sep 28, , 4: Eric Karrfalt , Agent, Noblesville, IN. Sat Jun 27, I'm not an attorney or trying to practice law here. As always, seek legal advice from an attorney. Here is my experience as an agent: The listing company is holding the earnest money as required by law. They really don't have any dog in this hunt other than abiding by earnest money statutes set forth in state law.

I have had clients with earnest money disputes exactly as you have described.

Earnest Money in Dispute? - Seattle Real Estate Professionals

Seller feels he is entitled to it from my buyer. I have also had my sellers request to keep it from the listing side. In both cases, the real estate company cannot release it until both parties have agreed. They are doing what is required by law.

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So where to next? Small claims court was the option in all cases I have been involved with. The amount of disputed money falls under their juristiction and it reqiuires only a small filing fee. You are at liberty to have an attorney, but I have found the process very friendly and not intimidating.

My understanding is that you can't force the listing company to release it. You must force the seller to sign off on the release. It sounds like you have your contingency covered and would be entitled to your funds back. You might be entitled to recover your filing fee and expenses back as well. Ken Fishers advice of filing an injunction to prevent the property from being sold sounds like a good tactic as it would tie the seller up and prevent him from doing anything with the property.

If your contingencies are covered, his attorney would probably tell his client to release it since he would probably loose. Just make sure you did not break any other contingencies that may be in your contract. You would probably incur fees while hireing an attorney to do this, which you would be able to recover through court, but then you would need to go collect on your judgement. I have found that process was too much time. Again, this is just my experience.

Always seek legal advice from attorneys. Laura Musall , Agent, Fishers, IN. Your real estate agent should be able to take car of this for you. The earnest money is held by the real estate broker, not the seller. Futureandheart91 , Home Buyer, Indianapolis, IN.

Laura, I totally agree with you. I entrusted a real estate agent and had me put down some money that she said was earnest money and gave me a receipt with the address of the location we were interested in buying.

She said that she was going to get the contract started. A few days later she said that the owner of the house decided not to sell the property. I asked for my money back and have sent her several text messages and voice mail messages but have not heard from her. I want to send her a certified letter but do not know what to write on it. We never signed a contract, but only given a receipt.

Can you please tell me what to do and maybe send me an example of a letter requesting my earnest money for a non-purchase and contract. Ken Fisher , , Contact your favorite attorney and take action against the C21 office, the principal broker, the agent and the seller.

Your purchase agreement should have covered you for this event I would also ask for considerable damages. Take your case to Superior Court to give it some teeth By the way, I am not an attorney, but I do know the lawn.

If you want assistance in the future to purchase other property, please visit http: We have the experience to prevent such problems from ever occuring. How can we get our earnest back if the seller refuses to sign the release earnest money letter? My Seller refuses to sign the release to the earnest money.

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