Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Lease/Option

Unfortunately, I think you are confusing two, or possibly three, different concepts. Maybe not, let's hope, but probably.

First, if the couple made an up-front payment of $10,000 on a lease with option to purchase, one would have to read the lease-option agreement very carefully to determine whether the $10,000 was intended to be:

(1) The price of the option;

(2) A deposit or refundable prepayment towards a future down payment;

(3) A security deposit for the lease;

(4) Some combination of the above; or

(5) Something else.

The refundability of the $10,000 depends entirely on which of the foregoing it was supposed to be. If it was the price of the option, it is clearly not refundable, because you received what you paid for, namely, the right to tie up the property at a fixed price for a period of time.

The passing away of one member of the couple probably has no effect on any aspect of the lease, the option or the right, or alck thereof, to a refund of the $10,000. Agreements of this sort tend to inure to the benefit of, and to bind, either and both members of the couple.

It would be necessary to review the actual documents to see what was intended by the parties at the time of the agreement and take it from there.