Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Real estate purchase contract

Scenario: I sign a full purchase contract for a new house on Sunday. Include a full deposit. Tuesday the builder rep calls and says that the car the contract was in is stolen. I cancel the check. They are now ''iffy'' on the contract even though I and they have full copies. What liability, if any, do they have for alledgedly losing every bit of data needed to steal my identity? I have already posted a fraud alert to the 3 credit buraeus. What next?


Asked on 2/23/07, 12:02 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Real estate purchase contract

Liability to you for loss of your personal information would depend upon showing negligence. Obviously, some car thefts involve negligence by the owner (left keys in it, etc.) and some do not (car was locked, windows up, parked in a "safe" neighborhood).

If there are copies of the contract and you replaced the deposit check, the seller cannot back out and you could get a court to require him to complete the sale (specific performance).

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Answered on 2/27/07, 1:36 pm


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