Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Ohio

Question about earnest money deposit please help!

I signed a contract to purchase a house in November. The seller stated that he would not pay to fix anything over $500 if found problems found in the inspection and that I could not use the inspection as a reason to get out of the contract. (His realtor stated that everything had been fixed after a previous inspection when it was in contract). I put down $2000 earnest money. My wife agreed to give me the deposit (seller was paying $3000 in closing costs and I was paying the rest). The house was being bought in my name only. I had an inspection done on the house and the inspector found major electrical problems and something about the swell in the backyard. The loan was FHA and the appraiser said these things needed to be fixed. Two things happened after that, my wife refused to give me the downpayment money because of the lies told about any problems already being fixed in the house, and I did not have enough for the remaining closing costs. My loan was denied by the mortgage company because of these two things. The seller is disputing the return of my earnest money and we have to go to court. Do I have a right to get my money back?


Asked on 2/16/06, 7:33 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Frank Rozanc Frank J. Rozanc, Esq.

Re: Question about earnest money deposit please help!

Yes, although you should have made the contract contingent on any repairs costing only $500 or less. You must be able to prove that your reliance on seller's representations was reasonable under the circumstances.

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Answered on 2/23/06, 5:40 pm


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