relentless
Junior Member
New York
When I sold my house last year, I engaged a local Lawyer to assist me with the closing. As part of this procedure, I was required to allow the lawyer to retain $1000.00 in escrow to assure that the house was in the agreed to condition upon closing. I understood that this was a standard procedure. In addition, when the house was inspected by the buyers, the engineer found a problem with the furnace. My lawyer made an arrangement with the buyer's lawyer to leave an additional $4000.00 in escrow to assure that the necessary repairs were made before the new owners took possession. I wasn't worried about the $4000.00, since I knew it was a minor problem. I told my lawyer that $4000.00 seemed high, since it wouldn't even cost that much to replace the furnace with a new one. However, my lawyer assured me that I had nothing to worry about because he would be keeping all my money in his own account. I had the furnance repaired (for the sum of $150.00) prior to turning over the house to the new owners. The new owner was present when the repairs were made. I presented proof of this to my lawyer's office, expecting a prompt return of my money.
It's now been over a year since I've sold my house, and I've still not been able to collect from my lawyer, either the $1000.00 standard escrow, or the $4000.00 escrow to ensure the furnace repair. Repeated calls to the lawyer, resulted in his secretary always saying, "I'm sorry this is a legal matter, you have to talk to the lawyer...". Of course, the lawyer was never there when I called; and of course, he never bothered to call me back.
I did manage to reach him directly on a couple of occasions, and the routine was always the same. First, I had to "remind" him about my issue. Then he'd reply, "Oh yeah, no problem. I'll take care of it, I'm busy right now, I'll call you back..." After the third time of going through this routine, I realized this wasn't getting me anywhere, so I wrote a letter to the firm demanding an explanation or a prompt return of my money. Needless to say, my correspondence went unanswered. This was six months ago. There has been no further communications between myself and the law firm. I guess I can just keep calling, writing, etc. even though I know the response will be the same. However, I feel like an idiot doing so.
Many thoughts have come to my mind as to how to deal with this. However, very few would be legally sanctioned. I thought about hiring another lawyer. But, it would probably cost me $5000.00 in lawyer's fees. My friends say that lawyers tend to stick together anyway, so I could never be sure that I'd even find an honest advocate. I was also told that this was too high an amount to try small claims court.
I tried to contact a NY state organization that supposedly helps clients with escrow issues. I only got through to an automated message that asked me for my name and an address to mail a form to. Of course, I never got that form. At this point, I'm at a loss as to what would be the best course of action. I'm hoping that someone in this forum can give me some sage advice.
When I sold my house last year, I engaged a local Lawyer to assist me with the closing. As part of this procedure, I was required to allow the lawyer to retain $1000.00 in escrow to assure that the house was in the agreed to condition upon closing. I understood that this was a standard procedure. In addition, when the house was inspected by the buyers, the engineer found a problem with the furnace. My lawyer made an arrangement with the buyer's lawyer to leave an additional $4000.00 in escrow to assure that the necessary repairs were made before the new owners took possession. I wasn't worried about the $4000.00, since I knew it was a minor problem. I told my lawyer that $4000.00 seemed high, since it wouldn't even cost that much to replace the furnace with a new one. However, my lawyer assured me that I had nothing to worry about because he would be keeping all my money in his own account. I had the furnance repaired (for the sum of $150.00) prior to turning over the house to the new owners. The new owner was present when the repairs were made. I presented proof of this to my lawyer's office, expecting a prompt return of my money.
It's now been over a year since I've sold my house, and I've still not been able to collect from my lawyer, either the $1000.00 standard escrow, or the $4000.00 escrow to ensure the furnace repair. Repeated calls to the lawyer, resulted in his secretary always saying, "I'm sorry this is a legal matter, you have to talk to the lawyer...". Of course, the lawyer was never there when I called; and of course, he never bothered to call me back.
I did manage to reach him directly on a couple of occasions, and the routine was always the same. First, I had to "remind" him about my issue. Then he'd reply, "Oh yeah, no problem. I'll take care of it, I'm busy right now, I'll call you back..." After the third time of going through this routine, I realized this wasn't getting me anywhere, so I wrote a letter to the firm demanding an explanation or a prompt return of my money. Needless to say, my correspondence went unanswered. This was six months ago. There has been no further communications between myself and the law firm. I guess I can just keep calling, writing, etc. even though I know the response will be the same. However, I feel like an idiot doing so.
Many thoughts have come to my mind as to how to deal with this. However, very few would be legally sanctioned. I thought about hiring another lawyer. But, it would probably cost me $5000.00 in lawyer's fees. My friends say that lawyers tend to stick together anyway, so I could never be sure that I'd even find an honest advocate. I was also told that this was too high an amount to try small claims court.
I tried to contact a NY state organization that supposedly helps clients with escrow issues. I only got through to an automated message that asked me for my name and an address to mail a form to. Of course, I never got that form. At this point, I'm at a loss as to what would be the best course of action. I'm hoping that someone in this forum can give me some sage advice.