Repairs not complete as agreed upon (sales, real estate, broker)

[APBuyer]

We purchased a home a month ago where the seller agreed to have certain work completed by a contractor that works for the realtors. We have tried to work with our realtor after multiple unanswered calls or return calls from this contractor. I called him for the first time this week and he said he was busy but hoped he could do the work this Thursday and in the same breath tells me that he is not sure he was paid by the sellers he would have to check with accounting and get back with me to let me know. Yet our agent says she was there when the checks were cut. I am on the fence of contacting a real estate lawyer to see if we have any ground to stand on regarding either being refunded from the sellers if we get the work done by another contactor. I didn't feel good about work being paid for BEFORE it was completed but our agent assured us this is how they did work with this contractor and it was fine. And here we are. Is there ANYTHING we can do if the work doesn't get done?

My biggest aggravation is that all we want to do is schedule the work...and he has completely ignored my husband's calls and only answered mine, in my opinion, because I have never called him before. I texted him today with a summary of our conversation and asking for confirmation and so far, nothing back. I get that he is busy but how is it ok that he is ignoring phone calls and claiming he didn't get paid when others that were paid for work did the work they were expect to do (they even called us to schedule it). ONLY one who hasn't completed the work is this guy and he claims he didn't get paid and our agent is on his side!

[rrah]

Ask you agent to provide you a copy of the check. She should have received one or instructed you not to close if the work wasn't completed or paid for in advance by the sellers.

If she continues to ignore your call, bypass her and ask to speak to the Broker in charge (or managing broker) in the office. Mention that you may have to report this to the local MLS and/or State Board.

Just my opinion, but she violated her fiduciary duties to you in allowing the sellers to do a pay in advance thing instead of the work.

Next step would be to see a lawyer about taking the sellers to court. Depending on the cost of the work that might be more expensive. Don't have any work done yet.

[indy_317]

When we sold our older home, the offer was only a go if we paid two contractors around $4,000 each (just say $8,000 total). Instead of just lowering the asking price $8,000, at closing the documents were for the original sales price and two checks were to be made out to the two contractors. I liked the fact that these folks were just making stuff up, but at the same time, I felt it was questionable ethics when it came to the deal because the realtors get to keep the sales price inflated with the repairs we were paying and thus get a bigger commission on the deal. The thing is, once those checks were cut, to me it would be up to the buyer to make sure they got those checks and had a way to convert them back to cash if the work ended up not getting done.