REMEMBER: YOUR CLIENT IS THE BOSS EVEN IF YOU DISAGREE WITH THEIR ACTIONS

October 19th, 2012 at 7:18 pm

As you can imagine, a good percentage of our calls arise from transactions that involve “difficult” people. Whether it is a seller who refuses to repair obvious, inexpensive things, or a buyer who wants the seller to pay for every little, unimportant thing in the house, deals with these people can be very difficult to shepherd through. This becomes especially true when the difficult party is your client who invariably starts to treat you poorly, blame you for everything that goes wrong (including things you had nothing to do with) and ultimately makes even talking to them unpleasant. While your issues with these clients are understandable, the fact that someone is a “jerk” in no way changes your duties or obligations in a transaction. Your client, jerk or not, is still the boss and it continues to be your job to give him the proper advice, take his instructions and help get him what he wants, even if you think it is unreasonable.

For example, it is not all that uncommon for a seller to change their mind at the end of an escrow and do everything they can to make a deal cancel. The seller will start refusing to cooperate with any request of the buyer, will not make any repairs, will not return your phone calls and the like. Of course, in this type of deal, you have already put in 90% of your work and want nothing more than for escrow to close. But, frankly, that doesn’t matter. Your interests are irrelevant and you have to help your client get what he wants, even if it is the opposite of what you want. So, if you seller wants to cancel a deal, you have to tell him if he has the contractual right to do so, let him know what the buyer’s position is, refer him to an attorney but, most importantly, do what he wants (as long as it is not illegal). If he tells you to prepare a cancellation, even if you think he has no right to do so, you still prepare the document after advising him of the risks. The client remains the boss, “jerk’ or otherwise.

Similarly, your buyer may get cold feet after all contingencies have been removed and demand a cancellation. Or there may be a new disclosure, that you don’t think is very important but your client is very concerned with that causes him to want to cancel. In either case, no matter how unreasonable you think the client is, you need to help get the cancellation. Perhaps you need to demand a new TDS from the seller which would create a new cancellation right. If the seller refuses, talk to us and, in the right circumstances, we will have you amend your TDS. Regardless, even though you don’t want a cancellation, and think the client’s concern is overblown, you continue to be his fiduciary and therefore must help him get what he wants. You must act without consideration of your commission and follow the client’s instructions.

So, no matter how difficult your client is, you must always remember that they are the boss. Your job is to advise them of their rights and the risks of each course of action and follow their instructions. While we hope you will normally deal with reasonable people, that will not always be the case. Unfortunately, your client has the right to be a “jerk.” And when he is, as long as he is not asking you to do anything illegal, you are still his fiduciary and must follow his instructions. As unpleasant as this may be, it is what the law requires.

As always, feel free to call us with any questions you may have.

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