THE SALE THAT NEVER WAS

Please can Maria Castro or other Lawyers give me a Legal Opinion on the Article on Page 15 of Today's Edition of The Sur in English. Basically what the article  is saying that a Man  living in Alhaurin de la Torre put up his Luxury 1,045,000 Euros House up for sale in 2006 and as usual a 100,000 euro deposit paid on the signing of the Private Contract of Sale.An Estate Agent being an Intermediary,introduced a Buyer for this Property. Unfortunately due to unknown circumstances the buyers were unable to complete the purchase and,as is the Law,the Deposit was not returned.The Estate Agents went to Court  to try and recover some of their costs.The Courts have now awarded the Estate Agent the Commmission they would have earned if the House had been sold.Costs were also awarded bringing the amounted the Man was ordered to pay to 77,000 Euros.To this day this  house is still up for Sale.

How can the Courts award this Estate Agent the Commission as the Sale did not take place.This verdict is totally unfair and I think is  not in accordance with Normal Business Practice around the world.

All comments on the above will be of great interest to others in this same sort of predicament.

Thank You

 It reads as if the estate agent just wanted his share of the forfeited 100k deposit, which isn't so unreasonable - he did his job. We aren't told why the prospective buyer was unable to complete the purchase. Perhaps it was partly the fault of the seller. There's more to this story than meets the eye. Surely, before it went to court, the estate agent would have asked the seller for what he thought was his share of the forfeited deposit in consideration of the work he had done.Why did this go to court? In many countries you are advised to write into the agreement with the estate agent "commission is payable only on transfer of title". This averts this type of problem, which is by no means unusual.