Buyer didn't provide lender a needed document

[freckleface]

We are from Wisconsin... We accepted an offer on our home that was only contingent on an inspection, well and septic inspection and financing. We flew through the inspections and the home appraised fine for the loan. The buyers were unreachable on the day that the contigency for financing was suppose to be finished and so we verbally told the realtor that we would wait until the following day for them to reach them as the lender needed one more piece of documentation to finish up the approval on the loan. It turned out that the buyers had gotten cold feet - decided they didn't want to leave their other house in Texas (there was no contigency to sell that property) - so they did not supply the final piece of documentation and therefore the bank denied the loan. They had asked to have a closing in 3 weeks from the time that they put in the original offer and we bent over backwards to make everything work. We are now in the process of unpacking and trying to make the house presentable again as the closing was about a week after the financing contingency was met. Do we have a right to ask for the earnest money to be released to us since they wouldn't provide the last piece of documentation or are they legally entitled to the money back?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by freckleface

We are from Wisconsin... We accepted an offer on our home that was only contingent on an inspection, well and septic inspection and financing. We flew through the inspections and the home appraised fine for the loan. The buyers were unreachable on the day that the contigency for financing was suppose to be finished and so we verbally told the realtor that we would wait until the following day for them to reach them as the lender needed one more piece of documentation to finish up the approval on the loan. It turned out that the buyers had gotten cold feet - decided they didn't want to leave their other house in Texas (there was no contigency to sell that property) - so they did not supply the final piece of documentation and therefore the bank denied the loan. They had asked to have a closing in 3 weeks from the time that they put in the original offer and we bent over backwards to make everything work. We are now in the process of unpacking and trying to make the house presentable again as the closing was about a week after the financing contingency was met. Do we have a right to ask for the earnest money to be released to us since they wouldn't provide the last piece of documentation or are they legally entitled to the money back?

**A: it depends upon how your contract was written. See your Realtor.