Home Buyer Not Acting Good Faith

In North Carolina, parties to a contract have a duty to act in good faith and make reasonable efforts to perform their obligations under the contract.

In order to complete the transaction to purchase a home, a home buyer must sell their existing home. They learn that the buyer of their existing home has terminated their offer.

The home buyer wants their agent to tell the sellers that if they don’t refund the due diligence fee, the buyers will delay termination of the offer until the very end of the grace period.

What should the buyer's agent do?

They should advise the buyer to seek advice from legal counsel about pursuing this strategy. Legal counsel will likely advise them that in North Carolina, parties to a contract have a duty to act in good faith and make reasonable efforts to perform their obligations under the contract.

Attempting to get the due diligence fee back could be seen as a violation of that duty.

If the agents assists them in that effort they could expose them to liability and violate both the License Law and the Code of Ethics