Who gets the earnest money if the land is improperly advertised?

[Erin Church]

I have found myself in an interesting situation. I am under contract with a property in Cherokee County, Ga. The tax records, listing, appraisal and owner herself indicated that the land was 1 acre. Just after the end of the DD period, the listing agent sent over an addendum of the property description for me to sign and it shows a survey where the property is only 0.29 acres.  (I didn't sign it.) The owner has been paying taxes on 1 acre for over 30 years, but signed documentation acknowledging that the property was only 0.29 when she purchased the property.

I felt that adjusting the sales price would be the way to go since we were now getting "less for our money". The FMV of the 0.71 acres would be about $17k looking at recent sales in the area. The tax value would be about $15k for the 0.71 acres.

The sellers do not want to budge on price. I don't want to "give away" my options.

Who gets the earnest money? They misrepresented the property and I would have had a different take on it (lower offer) to begin with had I known the true size of the lot. However, we're outside of the DD period. Any input or pointing to resources (or a good local attorney) would be very appreciated. :) 

[Tom Gimer]

So rather than fix a known problem (public records, tax vs. actual) they decided to hide the issue until after the buyer's DD period ended. The only "gray area" for me is negligence vs. fraud in the inducement.

Somebody -- should have been the seller -- now needs to fix the problem with the taxing authorities. And if your broker won't get tough for you, get an attorney involved. Research whether the overcharged RE taxes can be pursued, and for how many years, and who can make that claim and whether it can be assigned.

Again, this is just how I would be thinking to forage through this.