Article
Condo Buyers Need To Hire a Lawyer
The California condo buyers, who due to some or the other reason are unable to go through their deal are usually entitled to a partial refund of their condo deposit. Usually, a smart investor who wants to cancel his California condo contract should hire a lawyer to protect his rights, guide him through the process, and secure a favorable settlement for him.
Previously, in the year 2007 and more in 2008 there was a flurry of litigation between condo buyers and sellers. Most of the litigation ends up in three types of disputes, firstly the builder not opening the building on the promised time, the developer not building the same building that was promised to the buyers, and the builders illegally keeping a large amount of the deposits in collecting from the potential buyers. The focus of this post is on this last type. Mostly, people who have invested large amount of money on pre-construction in California condo units are decided that they do not want to finalize the deal due to some reason or the other. These defaulting purchasers are usually entitled to some of their deposit back, but generally the developer refuses to follow the law and give the money back to them.
The builders have reasons for not following the terms of their own contracts as well as the terms of the state and federal law, all of which usually require a partial refund of a buyer’s deposit if the buyer decides not to buy. Firstly, most buyers are ignorant of their rights, and won’t even try to get the refund they are entitled to. Secondly, the developers themselves may not even realize that state and federal law usually require them to give partial refunds of deposits to buyers. Thirdly, even if the developers are aware that they are supposed to give partial deposit refunds, as no one wants to part with money easily, they often simply make the business decision to refuse to follow the law until the buyer forces them by filing a case against them. If only 20% of the buyers sue them, then the developer has to give only those 20% of its canceling condo buyer’s refunds, but he keeps the full deposits on the other 80% buyers.
At times it so happens that even when buyers do know their rights and demands a partial refund; sometimes the developer just ignores their letters and phone calls demanding their partial refund. The developers do not want to give in easily. Every major developer has its own army of lawyers to take care of their legal aspects, and until the buyer hires his or her own lawyer, the developer can usually get away with ignoring letters from buyers threatening to sue them as the developer know that the buyer can’t do anything much without proper legal knowledge. The developers know from experience that when a buyer threatens to sue but hasn’t hired a lawyer, it is usually an empty and idle threat that will never be followed up on. Until a buyer hires a proper lawyer it is difficult for him to get his deposit back from the developer. If you would like to read more about some great condo law resources, try gweston.wordpress.com.
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