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The Court of Appeal of Angers, in a decision of 26 October 2021, n°= 18-02112, held an estate agent liable for failing to check the solvency of the buyer who had signed the promise to sell. The judges of Angers affirm that an estate agency, a professional specialising in the negotiation and sale of property, is obliged, as the owner's agent in the sale of a building, to ensure that the conditions necessary for the effectiveness of the transaction negotiated through its intermediary are met. They thus judged that the agency had failed in its contractual obligations, the obligation to provide information by refraining from collecting the slightest element on the financial guarantees of the purchaser whereas the lack of seriousness of his written offer to purchase was detectable. Particular obligation of his mandate by not providing for an escrow clause in the preliminary sales agreement (absence of payment of a deposit at the time of signing the preliminary sales agreement) and obligation to advise by not drawing the attention of the sellers to the abandonment of the escrow clause and its consequences for them.

The estate agent was held liable and ordered to pay damages to the vendor owners for the loss suffered by them:

- for the immobilisation of their property for 6 months without any diligence on the part of the estate agent to protect them against the risk of insolvency of the buyer, this situation having deprived them of other opportunities to sell their property to other buyers at least at the same price.

- for the absence of a down payment by the purchaser at the time of signing the preliminary sales agreement without informing the selling owners of the consequences for them in the event of the purchasers' default or the impossibility of the latter to borrow