Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

My first observation is that the agents in this transaction don't seem to be doing their jobs.

There is too much reliance on oral communications. Most of these negotiations involving creating or modifying the terms of a purchase agreement, waiving conditions precedent, etc. need to be put in writing to be effective. You simply cannot rely upon, or enforce, someone's oral representation that they will give you a $5,000 credit or price reduction.

So, step one here is to find out what the deal terms really are, i.e., whay is down in black-nad-white, with signatures or at least initials. All the rest of that "he said" stuff is probably NOT going to be part of the contract (if indeed there is one at all, but if there is an escrow, it's likely you're in contract, or were, alhough there could have been un-met and unvaived conditions precedent to closing).

If you are beyond the time set for close of escrow of a purchase agreement, you need a clear understanding of whether you are in default, and why, or whether the failure to close was the other party's fault, or, the third possibility, that the parties' duty to close is suspended by a condition precedent that is still validly unremoved either by being met, waived, or expiring. Your agent supposedly has sufficient training and sufficient knowledge of this deal to be able to explain exactly where things stand, and why. If you can't get a satisfactory, point-by-point explanation, try the agent's supervising broker. If that fails, get a local real-estate lawyer.

I'm unfamiliar with the "17 days" concept - have seen no such law, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. My thought would be that the parties' agreement governs, and if it contains a "time is of the essence" clause, any deadlines in the agreement may be strictly enforced.

Maybe you'll get another answer covering this topic.

Another possible source of explanation might be the escrow officer handling this escrow. Some of them are pretty willing to explain problems that arise in the course of an escrow to the affected party. However, escrow holders have very little latitude in how they handle escrows, especially as to when and to whom they release funds from the escrow......so don't expect the escrow holder to negotiate with you; they can't.

You have nothing to lose by bringing a lawsuit if necessary to get it back. Under $6000 you can use small claims court to do so. Keep in mind that your leverage is that the seller can not sell the house to anyone else until getting this escrow canceled officially. If you need legal help in this, feel free to contact me. A letter from an attorney generally will straighten these situations out by point out the inability to sell the house.