James P Brady

Nancy is the mother of the purchaser of a house & was my contact throughout. There was no realtor involved. After the inspection period was over, Nancy became concerned about a possible abandoned septic tank. I advised her to speak with the town or the owner regarding a septic tank inspection. I asked seller's attorney about it & was provided with the Certificate of Abandonment, which I provided to Nancy, who thanked me. Prior thereto, an inspection had been conducted & later, I was advised that there was to be a $1,000 credit to the buyer as a result. I prepared an addendum to that effect. It was signed & a copy provided to Nancy and the lender. Thereafter, Nancy requested a copy of that addendum at least twice & each time, I provided it again. I always tell the client to bring the final version of the contract & any agreed-upon attorney review letter or addendum to the lender. In point of fact, by e-mail on 6/29/20, I advised Nancy to provide the fully signed closing cost addendum to the lender. Despite this, I sent the credit addendum to the lender anyway on 7/1/20 as a courtesy. On 7/8/20, Nancy's son & the seller agreed to move back the closing date, a new addendum was presented by sellers’ attorney to move the closing date back to 8/31. Nancy's son signed it & I sent it to the attorney that same day. On 7/9/20, sellers’ attorney provided me with the fully signed addendum changing closing from 8/14 to 8/31 & I provided it to Nancy (and the lender as a courtesy). On 7/21/20, Nancy asked if I ever got back the fully signed addendum changing the closing date to 8/31. I stated I had provided it to her earlier on 7/9/20 but, sent it again. Next, there was a phone conversation in the evening of either 7/21 or 7/22, in which Nancy expressed concern that somehow closing on 8/31 would cost her son $500 in mortgage fees. (Not sure why, unless he paid for a rate lock that expired on 8/14). Nancy advised that there had been another discussion with the seller whereby it was agreed that closing would occur on 8/14 but, that the seller would remain in the house until 8/31 when seller was scheduled to close on his new house. On 7/23, I prepared a new addendum changing back the closing date & provided it to Nancy & seller's attorney. On 7/23, the lender claimed that he never received the closing date addendum for the 8/31 date. I replied that such an addendum had been signed but, we were in the process of changing it back to the original date. I prepared a U & O (no charge) & sent it to Nancy & counsel. When I received the smoke cert. from the seller's attorney, I asked about the new closing date addendum & the U & O. Seller's attorney never heard of this. On 7/23, at 7:07 pm, Nancy wrote to me and said, "The sellers do not want to move the date back to the 14th. I am not sure why the mortgage company never got a change of date moving the date to the 31st. Shouldn’t you be the one advising the mortgage company of the date change or anything that changes on the contract? Because of this Dan will have to pay approximately $500 because of this mix-up. Please advise!" The problem with this is I HAD given the lender the addendum for the 8/31 closing date by e-mail on 7/9/20 & the client knew the closing date was 8/31 when they purchased the rate lock. Also, the "extra" $500 was incurred not because of date change addendum but, because seller refused to change the date back. Now, I realized a mort. commitment must have been issued & I had not been told. Upon my request, the lender gave it to me. I ordered the title, reviewed it & spoke with the title company concerning the report. Ultimately, we closed. This is a matter of needing to blame someone for the late closing date & the $500 - neither of which was my decision or due to any action or omission on my part & even when I demonstrated that I did inform the lender of the closing date change & Nancy knew the closing date change, I am being blamed.