Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New York

I'm seeking advice on behalf of my parents who are not good at English. They were planning on buying a small business for 1.1 million in Scarsdale, NY and gave a down payment of $30,000 to another Korean couple. Unfortunately, they didn't put anything in writing, other than the fact that my dad paid 30,000 for the down payment and they received it. Then, after all the arrangements were made and down payment was given, they raised the price to 1.3 million. My parents then did some more calculations after asking for their daily reports and my parents found out that we had been lied to and the income for the business was much less than my parents were led to believe. Again, however, none of this was documented. Thus we backed out after the sudden rise in asking price. Now they are saying that their daughters are lawyers and the daughters said they don't have to give us back any of the down payment, but they will give us 15,000 after they sell the business. It has already been about a year and they have not sold the business, and they are not even thinking of returning our down payment. What can be done, if anything? Any info would be much appreciated.. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.


Asked on 1/06/12, 12:11 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Markowitz Michael A. Markowitz, PC

Next time, retain a lawyer to purchase the business.

To answer your question, you must commence an action for the return of the $30,000. It seems from your question that the delivery of the deposit was in contemplation of the purchase of a business at $1.1M. Since the sellers did not accept the offer and instead modified the price to $1.3 M, there is no contract and the deposit must be returned.

Mike.

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Answered on 1/08/12, 9:02 am


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