A misunderstanding about the maintenance fee.

[GuyFromFL16]

What is the name of your state? Florida
I was in the process of purchasing an apartment and on my contract the maintenance fee was $199 but 3 days before the suposed closing date I finally got in touch with the President of the association (I had to set up a screening with him and he was impossible to get in touch with) as he was going over my contract he noticed that the maintenance fee said $199 but he told since I was getting a 2 bedroom that it was going to be $252..that price ending up being too steep for my husband and I to pay monthly and we decided to not get the apartment and ended up losing about $600 in inspection fees, appraisesal fees, and application fees. I lost that money because of someone else's mistakes and I have no reason to have lost all the money and suffer for there misunderstandings to one another. Now I would like to know who here should be at fault and what should I do to get my money back. Thank you for your time...Annette

[Souix]

Originally posted by GuyFromFL16
What is the name of your state? Florida
I was in the process of purchasing an apartment and on my contract the maintenance fee was $199 but 3 days before the suposed closing date I finally got in touch with the President of the association (I had to set up a screening with him and he was impossible to get in touch with) as he was going over my contract he noticed that the maintenance fee said $199 but he told since I was getting a 2 bedroom that it was going to be $252..that price ending up being too steep for my husband and I to pay monthly and we decided to not get the apartment and ended up losing about $600 in inspection fees, appraisesal fees, and application fees. I lost that money because of someone else's mistakes and I have no reason to have lost all the money and suffer for there misunderstandings to one another. Now I would like to know who here should be at fault and what should I do to get my money back. Thank you for your time...Annette

**Ok 20 questions time:

1. By apartment do you mean a condo or a townhome? Or are you purchasing an apartment building that has an association?

2. What are maintenance fees for? Is that the HOA Dues?

3. Where is your Realtor or Attorney?

Usually inspection fees, appraisal fees and application fees are not refundable. However, earnest money deposits are.

4. Did you sign a Purchase Agreement?

5. Did you have an earnest money deposit?

It would really depend on what your contract says, in order for you to get a refund on anything.


Ok, so that was only 6 questions.**

[HomeGuru]

Writer, I just have 1 question: why did you not verify the MF with the HOA before making your offer and ordering your home inspection, appraisal, application fees etc.?
You are at fault for improper and incomplete due diligence.

[GuyFromFL16]

Originally posted by Souix
**Ok 20 questions time:

1. By apartment do you mean a condo or a townhome? Or are you purchasing an apartment building that has an association?
I was purchasing an apartment (condo) that did include an association.

2. What are maintenance fees for? Is that the HOA Dues?
I'm honestly new at this, I am a first time buyer so I really don't know too much when it comes to this terminology (HOA ) I had to pay a maintainence fee which covered the insurance of the exterior building, the cable, water, cutting grass, and cleaning the pool, etc.
3. Where is your Realtor or Attorney?
I have a realtor but the info he received came from the realtor of the seller and he just went along with what they told him. Now I asked him how come he didn't call the association himself and verify everything to make sure it's ok and he told me that wasn't his position to do it, that was the seller's realtor's job. And again I believed him because this was the first time I did this and I didn't know too much - I guess you can say I trusted him.

Usually inspection fees, appraisal fees and application fees are not refundable. However, earnest money deposits are.

4. Did you sign a Purchase Agreement?
Yes I did sign the purchase agreement, i was right about ready to get my loan processed and when that was done the apartment would have been mine. I was three days untill closing

5. Did you have an earnest money deposit?
Well this is the thing, the president of the association told me that due to the maintainence fee being different he wasn't going to process anything until I consulted with my husband to make sure if he would still agree on getting the apartment. My husband said no he didn't want it and we decided not to get it. I called the president back but it wasn't untill days when he finally called me and I wasn't home...I continued calling him back but it was impossible to reach him. I finally decided to call the bank to cancel the check and I found out he ended up cashing in the check - oh and another thing, the rules and regulations of the association said that the application fee was $100 but when I spoke to one of the people in the office she said because it was a 2 bedroom that it was going to be $200, and in the rules and regulation it never specified the amount of rooms would determine the application fee...it was just a one time $100 fee so that's another thing i'm worried about is something pocketed the extra money.

It would really depend on what your contract says, in order for you to get a refund on anything.


Ok, so that was only 6 questions.**

[GuyFromFL16]

Originally posted by HomeGuru
Writer, I just have 1 question: why did you not verify the MF with the HOA before making your offer and ordering your home inspection, appraisal, application fees etc.?
You are at fault for improper and incomplete due diligence.

You know for a person doing this on there own with NO help what so ever and not having anyone advise me...I am not going to automatically know what to do. I've done the best I can throughout my process and I did a damn good job for being 19 years old and I'm proud of myself for all that I did with noone helping. Now what happened between my real estate broker and the seller's broker is where the screw up happened and I'm not at fault for that. If in black and white you see one thing and sign it, i'm assuming you're getting what you're signing..right??? well that's exactly what I did and it's there job if anything is incorrect or anything changes to verify me and let me know before I sign something. After I signed that contract I did the fees because with common sense that's what you do in order to process your paper work to get the property. So in all THEY screwed up not me I was a client following their professional instructions and like I said if i'm a first time buyer don't always expect to know EVERYTHING! no matter how much you've studied or researched.

[Souix]

Thank you for answering all those questions. It sounds like your realtor was at fault as he/she needs to always verify things like this. I have learned from past experience that I, as a realtor, can no longer rely on what a listing agent has put into their listing information. The burden is on me as the buyer's agent to confirm everything. It makes no difference if you are a first time buyer or not. Your agent is providing a service to you and they did not do their job. Before you signed the purchase agreement you should have had the Good Faith Estimate from the lender and the info regarding taxes, etc right in front of you.

If you are cancelling the transaction you will need to sign a release of earnest money to get your money back. If the seller wants to keep your earnest money (which it sounds like might happen), discuss the problem with your agent's principal broker.

HOA is Home Owner's Association and you should have also gotten a copy of their CC&Rs and Bylaws before you signed the Purchase Agreement (CC&Rs is Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions). It would have been at that time you would have learned of the correct amount of the dues.

Good Luck!

[HomeGuru]

I agree with Souix.