The Seller's Mistake Isn't Your Problem to Fix

This week I answered a handful of real estate Reddit questions on camera. Real scenarios, real legal answers.

One of them was about exactly this situation, and if you haven't watched it yet, the video is here.

But I want to go a little deeper on it.

Because the Reddit question was written from the buyer's perspective, someone asking whether they were entitled to the hot water tank outright.

And the answer is yes.

What the post didn't get into is what happens when you're the buyer's agent and the amendment request lands in your inbox.

That's where it gets interesting.

Here's the scenario: a property sells with a hot water tank rental. The rental is listed on MLS. But when you submitted the offer, Clause 6, the rental items section was left blank.

The listing agent didn't catch it. The seller signed. The deal went firm.

A few days before closing, someone on the seller's side figures it out. And then your phone rings.

The framing is usually some version of: it was an honest mistake, everyone knew it was a rental, can we just do a quick amendment?

It's going to feel like a reasonable request. It isn't.

Here's the legal reality: the APS governs the transaction, and it's assumed to have been drafted intentionally.

When you reviewed that offer with your client, the blank Clause 6 reflected that they were not agreeing to assume any rental contract.

Whether it was an oversight or deliberate doesn't change that. The seller signed an agreement saying the buyer assumes no rentals, and typically, a rental item like a hot water tank is treated as a fixture, meaning without that clause, it's included in the deal.

We don't go by what the MLS listing says. It doesn't form part of the agreement.

I had this come up on a file not long ago. Seller's side called with the same pitch: mistake, oversight, can we amend.

We reviewed the APS, confirmed the clause was blank, and held our position. The seller had to pay out of pocket to buy out the rental contract before we closed.

The amendment request puts subtle pressure on the buyer's agent to be cooperative, to smooth things over, to just sign.

But signing an amendment in that moment means your client is voluntarily assuming a financial obligation they were never legally on the hook for.

That's not cooperation — that's giving something away for nothing.

Your job isn't to fix the other side's drafting error. Your job is to know your client's position and protect it.

In this case, the position is strong. Use it.

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