Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with escrow

How do we make sure our client in India pays their last invoice?

davidfitzy7 — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:35:41 -0800

Our consulting company is doing business in India and we need a way to make sure that our client will not skip out on the last payment in our contract. I don't mean to single any country out, but we have a new project in Mumbai and we got burned several times recently by other clients in India.

We have been told it is common practice not to pay the last invoice for a project. Our submission to the client is a digital / hard copy report. Typically we send our report and request our final payment, but we have no real leverage to make sure they pay we just cross our fingers.

Is there any other strategy we could be considering - is there anything like "escrow" which we could use to make sure the transaction happens smoothly?

Escrow Services for Software Development

srboisvert — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:17:12 -0800

I need a good international escrow service for some software development I am doing. Any recommendations?

Can I protect myself from a potential Money Pit?

joemax — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:03:16 -0800

I'm buying my first home and there are potential special assessments looming. Am I truly protecting myself from future repair and legal fee costs by setting up an escrow account? I'm buying my first condo and am clueless. Help me make this protection ironclad or tell me to run away! I'm considering purchasing a condo unit in Chicago's Lincoln Park. My purchase price represents a very good value - the unit is in short sale and it appears the mortgage-holding bank is ready to cut their losses and make this deal. Unfortunately, the building's disclosure report is bad. There is a problem with the roof, but the HOA hasn't committed to fixing it. Also, there are two other owners going through foreclosure, so there are legal fees for the HOA to pay, as it is apparently named as a party in the lawsuits filed by the defaulted-upon banks. Further, if these owners are no longer paying their HOA fees there may be a shortage coming. Currently their reserves are only $9000.

While this all scared me very much, I had my attorney write an agreement so $20,000 would be placed into escrow. It would cover repair to the roof, and repair to any damage caused by not fixing the roof right away. It would cover any legal fees incurred by the ongoing foreclosures. It would cover any increases in HOA fees for any reason. All this for 2 years. How safe is this agreement in protecting me from having to pay for these issues? What more info do you need to answer this question? What questions should I be asking? My offer hasn't officially been accepted by the seller's bank, so I still have an inspection to complete. I may be able to learn more about these issues at that time.

So what is your advice? Is this contract strong? I know YANML, etc. Or should I run screaming into the hills and find a safer deal?

(too) Cheap car with escrow. What could go wrong?

niles — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:56:50 -0800

She's selling the Mini for $10k under retail and will ship it out here at no cost for me to inspect. It's just like nice Mr. Oreck and his vacuum cleaners! So what's the scam? Or is it too good and true? My mom has been wanting to buy a Mini Cooper for the longest time, and regularly looks on Craigslist and other sites for sales. Yesterday, she found someone selling it for under $5,000. The cars retail new for about 4 times that amount. Ostensibly, the seller just needs to get rid of it so it doesn't rot in her driveway while she's deployed in Iraq. I think she could sell in in all of 30 seconds to a dealer for double her asking price. One other weird thing is that the ad was placed locally, but the car is 3 three states away for some reason. I also couldn't find an ad local to where the car is.

So here's the deal. She says she'll set it up though eBay Motors, using their "Business Purchase Protection Program", wherein she ships the car, along with the "title,bill of sale, full service records and more" at her cost. We simply pay eBay, and she ships upon deposit of the money. eBay holds the money "until you receive and inspect the car (you have 5 days for inspection) If you will find the smallest problem with the car you will ship it back on my expense and ebay will send you your full amount back."

This seems like a regular escrow deal. And escrows are supposed to prevent both parties from getting ripped off, right? So is there some loop hole we're missing, or is this really as safe as it looks?

Freeware or Shareware escrow software

Jenesta — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:01:53 -0800

Are there any freeware or affordable shareware (under $50) programs for Windows I can use to track multiple escrow accounts? I cannot find something specifically for this purpose, and I am not good enough with Microsoft Access to create something myself. Does anyone know of a solution that costs $50 or less for a small business?

I hate my neighbors

gjc — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:09:00 -0800

Can a Homeowners Association (condo, specifically) require that its dues be paid by the mortgage company out of escrow? Tiny background: I live in a 12 unit condo building. I was on the board for 7 years, and it was an exhausting nightmare. I resigned. Now the board is whining for me to come back. I don't want to. But I want to at least help them. Because I don't want my home to crumble to pieces.

So anyway, one problem we have is collecting association dues in a timely manner. So I figured one way to solve this problem is to let somebody else deal with the problem- let the owners' mortgage companies pay the dues out of escrow. The property taxes and other fees get paid that way, why can't the condo dues?

But I can't find any resources on the 'net regarding this. How do we set it up? Is it even possible?

(I know I can have a lawyer do it, but I want to gather information before I contact ours, and/or avoid it if possible.)

((And what tags do I use to make that tiny print that I see people using?))

Ebay seller in Texas buyer in Europe how can both be protected

stereo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:32:09 -0800

How can an ebay seller in Texas sell something to me in Europe with both of us being protected? I'm currently in France, and a Texan ebayer has interesting prices. In the US, he sells only to certified Paypal buyers. Ebay doesn't protect him if he sells to me in continental Europe.

The seller has 99.7% positive feedback and hundreds of positive ratings. He has suggested sending a money order, but ebay's buyer protection wouldn't cover me, and why wouldn't my $420 (shipping anywhere included) vanish?

Western Union costs $30 and isn't much safer. Escrow.com costs $50. I have a brother with a certified Paypal account in Berkeley, CA, but he doesn't fly over until August. Is there something else we could use?

Compensate us!

AsRuinsAreToRome — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:47:50 -0800

I am buying a condo and was supposed to close escrow and move in Tuesday at 5pm (yesterday). The lender backed out 1 week before that because of a lawsuit, and we had to get a new lender. We were assured by our realestate agent and our broker that there would be no issues. In the meantime, we gave our 30 day notice at our apt. and started to pack. NOW escrow isn't supposed to close for another week and we still have to move. We have to pay out of pocket for a hotel, or day to day lease on our apartment. This isn't cheap. Can we, should we, and who will compensate us? more info:

We met with our broker before we even put an offer on the condo. We got an approval and he said to us "No problem, you're in really good shape, we could close in a week if we wanted to". So we left him happy and excited. We made an offer on the condo, and it was accepted! We called our broker. And called, and called again. He never answered our calls. Finally after getting a hold of him, and getting the loan papers done, everything was in the clear.

Basically, we were waiting for 30 days to end so we could move in. A week before the move in date, we got a call saying the lender had backed out because someone had broken their ankle on the property and the HOA was being sued. This didn't affect us, but the backed out anyway. Our broker assured us that nothing would change and we would still move in on schedule, we just needed a new lender.

He found us one and it has taken them FOREVER to get the documents in order. 30 days has come and gone, and we're living in an apartment full of boxes. We are supposed to be out of our apartment by the 31st. Now we're being told this isn't going to happen.

We have to find a place to live after the 31st until we close escrow, which isn't until all the papers are signed and processed. Since our lender and our real estate agent continually told us this wasn't a problem and we'd be in there by now, we feel that its really unfair that we have to pay out of pocket for more rent or a hotel.

Besides how stressful this is. Even though it seems like its out of everyones hands, we aren't at fault for this. Can we ask someone to pay this for us? Who?

(sub) domain name lease.

cowmix — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:36:03 -0800

Complicated: How should I structure a lease for a domain name? (actually a sub-domain) I have a domain that I have 'owned' since April of 1993. A few people over the years have approached me to buy it off me.. but I don't want to give it up for many reasons. Here is what I am trying to do:

1. Keep the domain in my name.
2. 'lease' out the use of 'www.domain.com' for 5 or 10 years
3. be able to structure it so the customer will be assured that I can't screw them over after they pay me.. like get a good legal document for this purpose and / or use a service that acts as a fair 3rd party agent.

Has anyone done anything like this?

thanks!

Recommend an Escrow Service

theora55 — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:10:03 -0800

Can you recommend a good escrow service for selling a domain name? Any other things I need to know about selling a domain name? thanks.

Cashed rubber checks - now I want my money!

brianvan — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 20:18:39 -0800

I'm a newbie freelancer. Two of my clients, owing me money for services, wrote me checks that bounced. Details:

I'm a web developer. My services were graphic design, initial administration, and HTML coding for each client. Neither client has been notified yet, as I just found out this afternoon about the returned payment. My bank charged me nothing and I do not have a cash crunch at the moment - I won't bounce anything I write myself. I just need my money!

I've never handled anything like this before so I'll lay out each situation and then indicate my current plan of action. If there's something I'm doing that's very wrong or insensible, or if there's a better way of doing what I aim to accomplish, that's why I'm here. Suggest away.

One client has a site that is completed and active, under her own hosting account (not on my own hosting server). The fee for the entire job was lost on the bounced check. The check was written off her and her husband's joint personal account (not that it matters). Probably is just a big mistake. This is a very personable and gracious client who seemed to be enthusiastic to pay. (Sent the check enclosed in a sweet and detailed thank-you note) She just finished a successful career project and her husband works in a well-paid profession. I was sloppy with the business side of things, unfortunately, and I operated under written email agreement. No official contract was written specifying action or penalties in a situation like this. Legally, I believe she owes the money and I would feel confident approaching small claims court if it came to that. I hope not, as she's a friend of a friend. Widespread awkwardness (with effusive apologies in my direction) would ensue.

The other client has a new business starting up soon. She paid her 50% up-front non-refundable deposit (specified by contract) with a business account check. BOINNG! If I had to walk away now, the contract guarantees me the deposit. Work has just begun on her website, so there's virtually nothing lost. The contract does not specify bounced-check fees or procedure, though. I believe this is just a financial hiccup, but I'm more wary of payment failure for this one - it's a sign of deep cash flow issues (her store ain't even open yet). She's also a friend of a friend, again making things awkward among multiple parties.

I kinda know what I have to do. Notify them politely that their checks bounced, ask for the money again, and explore legal options if payment cannot be made immediately. I believe I'm not entitled to additional fees or new payment terms legally, but I feel a bit jilted and inconvienienced. I'm deep in the red and recieving partial unemployment payments during my downtime, so I'm not taking this well. I plan to ask for the following:

Client one: firmly demand full payment immediately in cash. I can't take the site down effectively (I could delete the files from the host, but I'm sure the host would restore them for the client from backups if I did such a nasty thing) so I don't have that bargaining chip. If I asked for inconvience fees or interest, she probably would agree to pay them since she's already offered - all kinds of project deadlines were blown on her part. It does not hurt my chances of getting paid in full for the job, since she either has the money or she doesn't (and in the latter case, time to find a cheap lawyer).

Client two: Will not ask for inconvenience fees because I suffered no actual loss and I have half my fee left to earn if I patch things up nicely. To keep the project active I want to insist on the following revision of payment terms (none of this is in the original contract): $300 in cash due immediately for the deposit, and $300 deposited in an escrow account for the future project completion payment. She must pay any escrow fees. Harsh, but probably necessary.

Again, if I'm doing something wrong or if something could be done better, let me know. To reiterate, each client agreed in writing (via email or by contract) to pay the amounts in the bounced checks. I think it's all a terrible coincidence and I will get my money if I ask nicely, but I'm also confident that I can still get paid if I have to ask not-nicely.

ship ship ship ship

weaponsgradecarp — Mon, 01 May 2006 13:18:46 -0800

ShippingFilter: Buying a used MacBook Pro from someone a hundred miles away, advice on shipping and payment. I want a shipping service where I can pay for the item on delivery, similar to the classic "COD" services. Do those still exist? are there any escrow-esque service out there (excluding escrow.com, the seller is phobic of it) that would allow me to do that?

Experience with canadaescrowservices.com?

knave — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 22:23:32 -0800

Someone is selling a car via an escrow service, Canada Escrow Services... He says he's out of the country, the car is at the escrow site in Toronto. If I want the car, I pay them, they ship the car to me, and supposedly if I'm happy, they send the payment to him.

The question(s): Has anyone ever done this? Has anyone ever used this specific escrow service before? How many ways can I get screwed here? The price on the car is also too good to be true (2004 Miata, perfect condition, 20k miles for $3900), so all the alarms are going off. There's always the chance that it's legit so I wanted to run this by the ask.me crowd.

No Seller Protection on eBay From Buyer Scams - Should I Bail Out? Use Escrow?

troutfishing — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 11:45:45 -0800

eBay hell. I haven't sold many items through eBay, so I was startled to wade through all the associated fine print to discover - after I had concluded a sale, received a payment via Paypal, and was ready to ship my item - that as a seller I get absolutely ZERO protection from buyer scams if I ship my item from the US to Canada. [ further, buyer supplied phone # tracks to address different from shipping address provided which is, as well, "unconfirmed" ] So, I'm considering 1) calling off the sale, refunding the $ and taking an eBay rep. hit or 2) eBay's escrow service. Any opinions?

Is there a highly recommended online international escrow service?

four panels — Thu, 27 May 2004 10:07:02 -0800

Is there a highly recommended online international escrow service? The United States and Europe would be the locations. I have signed on with escrow.com.