Who do you report Escrow Officers to?
My wife and I have been in process to purchase a short sale. It seemed to me as if the Escrow Office handling our transaction was acting in the best interest of the Seller from the beginning. Then after investigating a little, I came to find out the Seller worked at the same Escrow Office and in fact was the manager of the assigned Escrow Officer. Now I have no doubt that biased unethical conduct occured. Some of this is very provable. This is in CA. The fact that the Seller was the manager and employee was never disclosed to us. In light of all this, and now that we wish to cancel, I am afraid they will try to keep our money (deposit)
To what regulating officials can I report this too?
Comments
I disagree that there is any conflict of interest. Since there is no present relationship there was nothing to disclose to you.
But if you want to report this, you report to the CA department of real estate. They have a website, http://www.dre.ca.gov/
None of this will effect your right to cancel, but you need legal cause. This is not legal cause, if that is what you are thinking.
First of all, escrow is suppose to be a third party in a real estate transaction. The seller and their agent (if they have one) are to disclose anything they know about the property in question such as the roof leaks, foundation cracked, appliances not working, someone passed away in the house,etc.
Go back to the purchase contract and escrow instructions. The Purchase Contract should state that the Seller is an employee of the Escrow Company. It is a moral & ethical issue and could be a legal issue if they do not disclose this fact if she is asked out right. If you agent knew and did not disclose this to you he can be in trouble as well. If you only are assuming that both the Seller and the other person are involved in a unethical transaction, then see the transaction through to the close. Once the closing occurs, you can then file in court for the deposit, not for the amount the property sold for.
If you have proof of moral and unethical issues with this transaction, you need to take all correspondence, purchase contract, escrow instructions and your estimated HUD-1, and send copies of everything by certified mail, to your agent, sellers agent, escrow officer,lender,broker and to the Board of Realtors. Wait for their reply or replies to see if anyone reveals any information to you. If they do, send a certified letter to the Escrow Officer requesting you Earnest Money Deposit back due to the unethical & moral issues you say is going on. This letter needs to be signed by you and your wife. The Escrow Officer will then send a letter to the Seller for her signature accepting the return of the deposit. Once the Escrow Officer receives both letters, the file will be balanced and any monies owed will be paid. This can take two weeks or longer so be patient.
The real issue here is whether the Manager of the Escrow Company & the Escrow Officer were taking money from this transaction. It is easily found on the HUD-1 (Settlement Statement) but you will need someone who knows what to look for. An real estate attorney who gives a free consultation is who you should take your paperwork to. They will be able to tell you if something is going on or not and what you can legally do.
You simply do not have a valid case to report. That someone worked in an escrow office and is the seller is rather irrelevant. As well, you have no indicationf of 'unethical biased conduct'. You're guessing, and that won't go ANYWHERE in any type of complaint. The best you can expect is that said seller will be required to disclose any such relationship in the future.
Depends on how bad you want them to be punished. But my first question is, has the short sale been approved by the seller's lender yet? Because if not, the purchase agreement isn't an accepted offer and you can walk away at anytime
Not sure what documents you would have to sign being in CA but here in MI, all parties have to sign a Mutual Release Agreement if you provided a deposit.
Escrow is a criminal affiliation wherein an asset (often money, yet specially circumstances different sources mutually with artwork, a deed of identify, website, or utility source code) is delivered to a 0.33 party (stated as an escrow agent) to be held in have confidence pending a contingency or the fulfillment of a difficulty or circumstances in a settlement. Upon that experience happening, the escrow agent will grant the asset to the suited recipient, otherwise the escrow agent is beneficial by technique of his or her fiduciary accountability to maintain the escrow account. mutually as escrow is excellent familiar interior the context of actual sources (specifically in mortgages the place the interior maximum loan employer will set up an escrow account to pay sources tax and coverage), escrow businesses are additionally familiar interior the flow of better value homes like web content and companies and on the project of person to person auctions (eBay). Escrow is likewise familiar interior the judicial context. So stated as escrow money are familiar to distribute the money after a money settlement in a type action. this form the defendant isn't to blame for the distribution of the money to the guy plaintiffs. They pay the whole volume of the settlement to the escrow fund, who will than shield the distribution to all of the guy contributors of the class. actual sources brokers are in some jurisdictions considered to act as escrow brokers while they settle for deposits for the acquisition of actual sources. utility source code escrow brokers carry source code in escrow interior the form that the writer of the source code refuses or isn't able to launch the source code to the person of specialized utility if that utility now no longer purposes or specially different events, or as quickly as the seller employer is going bankrupt, then shopper has the remarkable to call for the source code. Escrow is extensively utilized interior the sector of Banking kit (mutually with computerized Teller Machines - ATMs) and is the function which permits the gadget to hold the money deposited by technique of the shopper seperately, and in case he annoying circumstances the counting consequence his money is decrease back. The be conscious "escrow" is derived from the middle English be conscious "escrowl", which means "scroll".
There is no requirement to disclose employee relationships.. You haven't really given enough info to allow us to determine what if anything was done illegally. Just because you want to cancel is not a good enough reason, you signed a contract & you will not get your escrow money back if you just back out of the deal.
Sorry, you don't have a case.
FORMER employment does NOT equal CURRENT conflict of interest.
No one in the transaction has to disclose FORMER relationships that are no longer in existance.
Read your contract...did you even bother to read it before you signed it? You should have...as long as you keep your end of the contract, there shouldn't be a problem.
Short-sales are NOT like normal sales...the bank, not the seller, has to approve it.
If you have proof of fraud then contact your county District Attorney and file criminal charges