Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: legal right to cancel escrow

A mobile home may be real estate, or it may be personal property. The contracts used and the applicable laws differ somewhat.

Whether you can cancel without breaching the sale agreement may depend upon whether the contract contains a "time is of the essence" clause. If it has such a clause, the buyer's inability to close on time probably is a sufficiently material breach to warrant your refusing to perform, even if the other conditions are met or waived.

I would say that either way you have a high risk of being liable for a commission. I'll be interested to see what other LawGuru lawyers have to say. Even if you don't have to perform on the sales agreement because of the buyer's inability to close on time, you may have to pay your broker under the listing agreement.

Further, does the listing contract give the broker the power to sell? Seems to me I saw something about this in another posting which looks like it's from you. The power to sell is probably not going to be subject to the 1/5/09 deadline.

Re: legal right to cancel escrow

You may not have to agree to the postponement of escrow and cancel, best to have an attorney review the contracts to determine whether or not you may be subject to some exposure. Contact me directly.