Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

The agent should only be acting on behalf of his client and not making demands himself. The purchase agreement will have a clause discussing extensions, but once the property has gone through escrow, which is when it "closes", the seller no longer owns the property. So I assume you mean the time when the offer has been accepted and all inspections have been carried out and the property is ready to go into escrow. Normally the seller can demand a payment to extend that time period as you are changing the contract. But is sounds like the seller has not complied with the terms of the contract by proving a house with a non-leaking roof, so it is the seller who may be requesting the extension.

When you ask whether it is illegal for an agent to ignore a request from a principal, my first thought is "What does "illegal" mean here?" If you mean, "Can the agent be arrested?" then no, it's not illegal. Can he be sued successfully? Probably not, without more. Your right to sue and recover damages probably requires at least (1) a legitimate request clearly communicated to the agent; (2) which the agent improperly ignores; and (3) financial harm to you, the client, which harm results more or less as a direct consequence of (2).

I don't know if Mr. Shers' analysis of what happened is correct -- it may be -- but we could do a more accurate analysis with more (and clearer) facts. For example, do you really mean "the closing" or do you mean "the date on which the closing was supposed to happen, but didn't"?