Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Bank Owned Counter Offer

You need to look at the language in their Counter-Offer which you "Accepted". The standard CAR forms that Realtors use for "Counter-Offers" contains a provision which must be checked, that states that the Sellers are entertaining and/or making several counter offers, and that for your "Acceptance" to be binding, the Seller must sign it indicating their "Acceptance" of your "Acceptance". This is perfectly legitimate, but as I recall, its something that has to be checked off or it doesn't apply. Look for that language. If in the Counter-Offer, then the Seller reserved the right to entertain and accept other offers even after your "Acceptance" of their Counter-Offer was signed and delivered to them; then you probably have to go along with their game. Talk to your Realtor - he should be aware of this, and if not, you need to find a new Realtor.

If, on the other hand, their Counter Offer did not expressedly contain language that reserved to them the right to approve your "Acceptance", then you should contact a real estate attorney.

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Re: Bank Owned Counter Offer

In general, the acceptance of an offer is complete when it is made. A revocation of an offer made before acceptance is complete, invalidates the offer and the acceptance. A rescission of an acceptance that is communicated to the offeror before he receives the original acceptance invalidates the acceptance.

So, it appears that your acceptance of the counter-offer was communicated to the seller offeror before the seller offeror revoked his offer. Therefore, it appears you have a valid contract and can sue the offeror/seller for breach of contract.

However, the above general rules can be modified by the terms of the offer (or counter-offer). Usually, real estate sales agreements contain terms regarding time lines for an acceptance to be received and the means and method by which an acceptance is to be made. So, in order to give you a better than general answer, an attorney would have to review the sales agreement.

Re: Bank Owned Counter Offer

If the house was owned by the bank and the bank countered your offer, your acceptance makes a contract and you can and should sue. If this is a short sale, the seller of the property is not the bank.

Re: Bank Owned Counter Offer

Offers and counter-offers in real estate practice usually have expiration times and dates, often requiring acceptance to be communicated very soon, like within 24 hours or before 5 p.m. two days hence.

So, before deciding that you are "in contract" and can compel the bank to perform the contract specifically by court action, you should examine the possibility that you or, more likely, your agent missed the bank's deadline for communicating acceptance of the counteroffer. If this was done by FAX, there may be transmission times and dates on the margin of the FAX pages, or perhaps the agent can supply a record of transmission produced by his or her FAX machine. Get the information (times and dates) from both the agent and the bank; if they disagree, someone's lying. Also remember that a FAXed acceptance will ordinarily be deemed communicated when sent, not when someone picks it up and looks at it.

Also, I would advise looking carefully at any pre-printed or filled-in-blank information on the bank's counteroffer specifying acceptance in a particular manner or at a particular time or place.

I have a hunch that your agent may have blown it by not forwarding your acceptance in time.