What is my recourse against my agent’s failure to confirm that appliances that were to be left were actually taken?
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What is my recourse against my agent’s failure to confirm that appliances that were to be left were actually taken?
When I put an offer on a house, I asked my agent if the washer, dryer and fridge were included. He said that he asked the seller’s agent and it was, however he failed to put it into my contract. I was moving to the area, so I had to remotely close on the house, so my agent should have done my closing walk-through. When I arrived a few days after closing, there were no appliances. My agent had no luck getting the seller agent to respond. My agent offered to pay for replacement value since it was his mistake but now he’s try to back out. Can I take my agent to small claims?
Asked on June 6, 2019 under Real Estate Law, Texas
Answers:
S.L,. Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
You can sue your real estate agent for negligence. Negligence is the failure to exercise due care (that degree of care that a reasonable real estate agent would have exercised under the same or similar circumstances to prevent foreseeable harm).
Your damages (monetary compensation you are seeking in your lawsuit) are the cost of the appliances and their installation. You can file your lawsuit in small claims court. Since the agent has disappeared, you can have a process server do a skip trace to locate and serve the agent with your lawsuit.
Upon prevailing in the case, you can also recover court costs which include the court filing fee and process server fee.
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