Paralegal Case Studies

How a seller of a home can obtain the deposit monies that were paid by a purchaser when that purchaser breached the Agreement of Purchase and Sale by not being able to finalize the purchase of the home on the closing date.

An individual sold his residential property located in Etobicoke. The buyer put down a $10,000.00 deposit at the time of entering into the Agreement of Purchase and Sale. On the day of closing, the buyer was not able to close and the sale did not go through. At law, the buyer would forfeit his $10,000.00 deposit to the seller for his breach of the agreement. However, the buyer refused to agree to allow the real estate brokerage firm which was holding the $10,000.00 in trust to pay it to the seller. The seller retained me to obtain the $10,000.00 deposit money for him.

Depending on the circumstances, in some cases you may be able to get your deposit back, or at least part of it, even if you are unable to complete your house purchase on the scheduled day of closing.