After closing, seller refusing to pay rent/SD per purch agreement

[Rafael Diaz]

So I recently I bought a duplex property from a wholesaler. It has month to month tenants, and in the original purchase agreement (which was assigned to me) it was agreed that the seller would provide the security deposit and prorated rents on the closing date. Well all involved parties neglected to tell the title company that the property was rented out and that such an agreement was made.

This was definitely a mistake on my end, as I should have verified that these terms were included in the closing documents. But as a first-time buyer this didn't even cross my mind.

Well now the seller refuses to pay me unless the closing documents are altered (which the title company keeps saying is impossible), and is unresponsive to me entirely as I try to rectify the situation. I'm trying to be professional about it, but feel like she's being overly difficult.

So I have some questions:

First off, does the seller have any obligation to pay me if the closing documents don't include this term (but the original purchase agreement did)?

Can she truly get away with not paying me? Or is there some kind of legal action I can take against her if she refuses to?

I don't want to blow this up into something huge. But if there's anything I can do to pressure her to adhere to the agreement, then I would like to do that.

It would be amazing to recover the money. But if at the end of the day if I have to lose it and learn a lesson, then so be it.

Anyways, any advice would be much appreciated!

[JD Martin]

Consider it a paid education in real estate investment :) . You will likely spend more time and effort recovering the funds than will be worthwhile. Unless you are talking about 5 figures or more I wouldn't spend a ton of time on this, and I doubt you are talking about that with a duplex. Whatever position you take the seller/seller's attorney is going to take the position that you signed at closing and those funds were accounted for within the closing in some fashion, whether that be through pricing, escrow, etc. She knows she has you in a spot, which is why she is being difficult.

It is possible that a simple letter from an attorney might change her mind - after all, she doesn't want to spend attorney fees either - so I would probably try that; but beyond that I doubt you will get anywhere.