contract was cancelled due to mortgage contingency clause

RE: FLORIDA REAL ESTATE LAW
I am a licensed R.E. agent and my husband and I purchased a spec house from a builder on 3/15/00. This home was on the Multiple Listing Service and we paid full price for it ($419,000). Home was to be completed in November,2000. We did not specify a mortgage contingency date. We were representatives of the builder at the time. We chose to use the same attorney to represent both sides and paid a deposit of 10% of the purchase price to said attorney's trust acct. We got a mortgage commitment in September, 2000 and the bank sent it to the wrong closing agent (atty). The attorney that received it my mistake supposedly verbally notified the bank to send it to the actual attorney that was representing us. From the time that we signed the contract to date, we have chosen colors, carpeting, roofing, have paid for some extras, etc. The home has not been completed as of today. As recently as January 10th, we have received change orders from the builder. Because of a difference of opinion we had with the handling attorney due to the horrible way he handled another transaction for one of our customers, on January 3, 2001 we decided to have another attorney take over the handling of our file.
On January 25, 2001, the attorney representing the builder sent a letter to our attorney cancelling the contract claiming that we had defaulted on the mortgage contingency.
They returned the deposit money to our attorney. Our attorney wrote a strong letter and returned the check to the builder's attorney. The builder has put the property back on the market at $550,000.

The question here is whether the fact that the mortgage contingency deadline, which according to them was 6 weeks after the effective date (April 26, 2000) did not seem to matter to the builder then or throughout the rest of the year. Why now all of a sudden, instead of giving us a warning to show that we had a mortgage he choses to cancel.

The other question is that I believe this attorney may have some responsibility here since at the time of the mortgage contingency deadline, he was representing us.

I WOULD APPRECIATE SOME ADVISE. I KNOW I NEED TO SEEK LEGAL COUNSEL BUT I WANT MORE THAN ONE OPINION.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

[HomeGuru]

It is obvious that the builder is attempting to cancel you out to sell at a higher price.

The first attorney may have had a conflict of interest.

You especially being a licensed real estate agent should have followed up more closely.