Market Street Escrow Completely unprofessional, lazy and borderline criminal escrow services - BEWARE! Tarzana California

I am a local real estate agent who has used the services of Market Street Escrow numerous times in the past and I have always found them to be knowledgeable, return my calls in a timely fashion, and always friendly.  This buyer who cancelled escrow and did not get his deposit back IMMEDIATELY is obviously not familiar with real estate and escrow law.  It takes the signatures on cancellation instructions from both the buyer and the seller in order to cancel an escrow.  And this cancellation must be prepared, mailed out to both the buyer and seller, and then wait for them to be signed by both and returned.  That takes time and his escrow is not the only one they are working on.  If the other side takes a long time to return their signed document, then escrow must wait for that signature.  Also if the cancellation was right away, then the buyer's deposit check needs to be cleared or obviously that could be a problem if there was insufficient funds. 

This buyer thinks that there is something wrong with using an escrow company that has an affiliation with a real estate company but there really is not.  MOST large real estate companies have their own "in-house" escrow companies.  This disgruntled buyer needs to get a little more experience behind his belt before making unfair demands and filing such disparaging comments on the internet to hurt someone's business.  I bet this buyer was probably not even charged a cancellation fee either like a lot of other escrow companies charge.  This escrow company is excellent, very knowledgeable and believe me I have used many different escrow companies over my 16 years in the business.  Agents on the other side of my transactions have also commented on how efficient and friendly the girls are at this escrow company.

I always appreciate the opportunity to learn and grow by experience, however, this report is filled with inaccuracies and lack of knowledge of escrow law and required procedure in the escrow process.  Market Street Escrow is a Department of Corporations escrow licensed by the Department of Corporations, with the manager having 24 years of experience.  Further, in this case, the filed canceled and escrow CANNOT issue a refund of deposit without signatures from both Buyer AND Seller. Further, all funds deposited into escrow are for the credit of all buyers on the property and without WRITTEN instructions otherwise, Escrow cannot issue the refund to just one buyer. We were not informed at the time of cancelation, either in writing or verbally, that the buyer wanted the check made to just one buyer. The WRITTEN instruction authorized us to refund the check to the buyers.

The refund check was sent out and mailed on 6/1/09- 2 business days after receiving the signed cancellation from the seller.  We did not hear from this client for 2 WEEKS after mailing the check. At which time he called and wanted the check made out to only him. He was informed that we needed written instruction from the other buyer and we could re-issue his check.  He brought in the instruction and exchanged it for a new check that day.

So, before listening to this review, please understand the facts of the case and the realization that we must follow escrow law and all instructions we take must be in writing before we can act. 

Thank you.