Nightmare Title Company/Assignment of Contract Story

[Elaine Bonini]

Hi All,

I just wanted to share a situation we recently went through at a Title company in Solano County. I got a property under contract, and drove straight to a Title company that I had previously called to verify would open and handle an Escrow with an Assignment of Contract. The Escrow officer accepted my contract, and told me they would have to disclose the new sale price to the seller if we chose to do an Assignment of Contract vs. a Double Closing. She advised me that she would not/could not do a simultaneous DC, and that it would have to happen 1 week apart as she, technically, "should not know" about premeditated double closing. She advised me that she didn't recommend doing an Assignment of Contract, as she has seen them fall apart once the seller is aware of the new price. I assured her that the seller was aware of the Assignment Clause in the purchase contract, and that I would tell the seller myself about the Assignment and my fee for it. She accepted this and proceeded with the Prelim. report. We then emailed her the Assignment of Contract, and the End Buyer contacted her to give her all of his info, and I gave her all of the sellers contact info. This took place on Monday, and were told we could close as soon as Wed of the following week.

The Prelim report came in on Wed, and not Monday as she had told me. Her assistant had been in contact with the seller and so they knew the seller was accepting of the assignment and my fee. I called the Officer on Thursday to check status on the paperwork, and get an update on the projected closing date. The assistant and the Officer were unable to come to the phone, and a second assistant told me the Escrow Officer would call me back in 20 mins (She never called back that day) Meanwhile, the Escrow Officer's Assistant told the seller the previous day (Wed) that a Notary would be at her house Thursday @ 5 pm to have her sign the closing papers. My seller arranged to be off work and at home earlier than usual to get the papers signed. The seller called me at 5:40 pm on Thursday telling me the Notary never showed, and asking me if I knew what was going on. I was mortified that the Escrow company didn't inform the seller that the Notary was not coming. I immediately called and left messages with the Officer and her Assistant to explain the situation, find out what the hold up was, and asked them to call me first thing (Friday) morning as they were closed for the day.

On Friday morning I spoke to the Assistant and told her what had happened to the seller the night before. She never offered an apology for leaving the seller hanging the night before. I then spoke to the Escrow Officer and she told me that that paperwork was not completed, and that is why the Notary was not sent. (Again, no apology for not notifying the seller). She then informed me that the whole transaction was "up for review" by management to make sure that "everything was on the up and up". (She actually said "up and up" several times during the conversation). 

Finally, a few hours later, after I made another inquiring phone call, I get an EMAIL from the Officer informing me that they would not be closing on this Escrow unless we changed it to a Double Closing. Her management would not sign off on the deal as it was currently constructed.  She tells me this in the 11th hour, after leaving my seller hanging, and AFTER getting confirmation from all involved parties that we were all okay with the transaction as it was. And AFTER telling me two weeks prior that they can handle Assignment of Contract Escrows.  Everyone was ready to sign, pay, get paid, and close EXCEPT the Title company.

Had to frantically call around and open escrow with a new Title company two weeks into the whole transaction. We moved over to a company the End Buyer had used many times in the past, and had a good relationship with. We explained the whole situation to them, they were very sympathetic, looked at our contracts, and without blinking, opened escrow for us and put a rush on the paperwork.

Moral of the Story: Work with a company and PERSON within that company that you KNOW will get the job done, and has a history of doing so. Don't just take a "yes", ask further questions, and make sure the management in on board before you leave your contracts in their hands. Force them to review your contracts, and accept them before you assume everything is okay.  Luckily for us, the seller did not walk. She was not happy, but stuck with us. This was an extremely frustrating, but valuable lesson.