[FlamesAddiction]

Hey, so I am having an issue here and was looking for some insight.

I am moving my family to Kingston this month and made an offer on a home. One of the conditions was that we could have a home inspection first and there was a clause in there saying that we could cancel the deal based on anything we didn't like in the inspection. To make a long story short, the home was full of deficiencies and the home inspector strongly recommended against buying the home (as did my realtor). The worst part was that they tried to hide water damage and lied about it until we provided evidence.

I did kind of feel sorry for them as apparently they way overpaid for the house 5 years ago and are being forced to relocate because they are in the military (the family is already apart because the home hasn't sold in 4 months). Even with the offer we gave, they would have been losing about $40k from what they paid.

Now they fired their realtor and have been totally refusing to sign the mutual release. He said they won't even answer their phones. We gave them a week to calm down hoping they would come to their senses, but now I think they just packed up and left.

We made a good faith down payment of $10k and I hate that it is just sitting there. My realtor said he hasn't had this happen in all his years of being in the business. Is it time to lawyer up? Are there any civil penalties for the sellers for refusing to sign a good faith deal?

It's annoying more than anything. We found another home and we used the same home inspector. He even offered to talk to them if we can find them.