Why Real Estate Agents can be Sued?

Real estate is a very risky job profile as well as a risky way of investment. As we all know every profession has corruption and malpractices especially real estate. So as a real estate agent or a client, you should know about the malpractices happening in the market and the reasons why real estate agents can be sued be it intentionally or unintentionally.

Different reasons for which an agent can be sued are:-

• A real estate agent is the mediator between the buyer and the seller and they also advise their clients on many things related to the property. If the real estate is not able to explain certain details of the property to the client which later causes problems for the client then the agent is held guilty and has to pay a penalty for it because the buyer or the seller can sue the agent in this case. It happens that in this case the buyer sues the agent and tries to recover the damage while the seller can sue the client if the buyer holds him/ her guilty, in both cases the real estate agent is the one getting into more trouble for not communicating well or inadequate explanations.

• Every real estate deal is based on a contract, a contract between buyers and sellers, a contract between the agent and the client, etc. When we don’t follow a contract we have to face reparation for the action. If the real estate agent is incapable the buyers or sellers can lose the deal. When agents don’t perform in the way the contract specifies they can be sued by the buyers or the sellers or both. Some possible situations of breaching of contract can be fraud, negligence, not being time-bound, etc. This is also fair because the action of the agents can cause severe loss for the buyers or sellers like confidential documents can get leaked to another party and loss of important documents and paperwork.

• Negligence can be a great problem for a real estate agent. The agent is accountable to the buyers and the sellers and if he/she is negligible with the work then they can face a serious problem. The agents need to ensure that they do the work properly and that the clients can trust him/her because if the client thinks that the agent was aware of the problems in the property ( though you were not ) he will be sued. So you need to be accountable, trustworthy, and non-negligible otherwise you will face serious problems.

• It is practically the responsibility of the seller to put all the information regarding the property in front of the buyer. During trials and testing of the property if the agent fails to identify the problem, or just keeps quiet even after seeing the defect then the agents will be responsible for the problem and not the seller, and it would be difficult to prove your innocence in this scenario. This could cause the real estate getting a negative impact on his/her career.

• If the client is facing any kind of problem with the agent then the client can sue the agent and drag him to the court demanding justice and compensation.