Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Arkansas

Untimely Delivery of a Real Estate Contract

We recently made an offer on a home and land in Arkansas that had been on the market for four years.The offer was taken by our agent to the selling agent on a Wednesday evening. The offer was not delivered to the seller until sometime Friday at which time our offer was presented as well as (curiously enough) another offer at exactly the same price. We have tried contacting the seller's agency broker/owner but he will not respond by phone or email. Do we have cause for redress due to the untimely delivery of our offer and then bringing another offer to the table at the same time? We found this action most unprofessional and perhaps unethical. What do you think?


Asked on 3/12/09, 8:31 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Scott Riddle Law Office of Scott B. Riddle, LLC

Re: Untimely Delivery of a Real Estate Contract

I'll defer to AR lawyers for perhaps a better response based on AR law, but at least in Georgia, the complaint would lie with the sellers, not you. The sellers' agent generally has no obligations or duties to a bidder, and bidders have no inherent right for their offer to even be considered. If anyone has a complaint, it would be the sellers who theoretically could have missed out on a bidding contest and ended up with more money. Even that is entirely speculative. Further, what are your damages? There was no contract. If you never had a right to buy the house, and the seller was never under any obligation to sell it to you, regardless of the offers, you have no damages.

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Answered on 3/12/09, 8:48 am


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