Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Escrow rules

That depends entirely on the terms of your contract with the buyers of your old house.

Re: Escrow rules

It's not a matter of 'escrow rules,' it's a basic matter of breach of contract and remedies for breach. If your contract with your buyer called for performance (i.e., closing) by a certain date, and because of their fault this has not happened, the contract has been breached; if you have suffered foreseeable harm as a result of the breach, you may be entitled to damages.

Having said that, let me qualify my answer as follows. First, whether there is such a breach as to warrant damages depends upon the language of the contract. Generally, it must (and probably does) have a time-is-of-the-essence clause. Second, your lawyer would need to review the language for anything that might give the buyers a legally-satisfactory reason to delay closing, such as some contingency that they could assert as not satisfied. Third, the real estate and escrow/title businesses seem to have a code of their own, based on decades of trade custom and practice, sometimes local in nature, that may determine under what circumstances and length of delay a seller can obtain damages, and in what amount. Therefore, you may want to make local inquiry, including asking your real-estate broker and perhaps your title officer. Their answers might be tainted by desire to get the deal done, so if they don't ring true, get a free consultation with a local real-estate attorney.

Whether your remedy should be pursued in court or through arbitration may depend upon whether the parties opted to have disputes arbitrated. This is a 'check the boxes' section on many real-estate purchase agreements.

Finally, before initiating any demand or suit, think about whether this might cause the buyers to back out entirely, making a small problem much bigger. You might want to postpone asking for damages until after your deal closes (if it does).