Seller Sues Broker For Not Disclosing Buyer Jeff Bezos’ Identity

In many real estate contracts, buyers and sellers end up in lawsuits over concerns of what their brokers or agents—or even the other side to the contract—should have disclosed to them. A recent lawsuit is doing the same, but this time, with a very interesting allegation over what the seller feels that he should have been sold about the eventual buyer of the property.

Sale to Jeff Bezos

The case involved the sale of multimillion dollar property in one of Miami’s wealthiest areas—homes to athletes, celebrities, and, relevant to this case, Amazon’s own Jeff Bezos. The area is called “billionaire bunker”  by some.

The seller says that he sold his property to Bezos, but that before the sale, his broker never told him that the buyer was actually Jeff Bezos. The seller’s identity wasn’t publicly available at the time—and that’s not unusual with high value sales or celebrities. They often will purchase property in corporate names, or families names, or LLC, whether for tax purposes, or just to maintain anonymity.

Still, the seller says that had he been told by his broker that the seller was Jeff Bezos, he would have sold the property at a much higher price—tens of millions of dollars higher.

Why So Valuable?

The reason such a disclosure should have been made, according to the seller, is that it appears that Bezos owns adjacent property to the one that the seller sold to him.

By owning two properties adjacent to each other, Bezos now has the chance to combine them into one—a benefit that would have a value to it, according to the seller, and thus, would have persuaded him to sell the property at a much higher price.

It appears that the seller may have had some indication that Bezos may have been the buyer as, according to the suit, he asked his realtor about whether or not the buyer was, in fact, Jeff Bezos, but was told no.

Duties to Disclose

A realtor and seller generally must disclose to a buyer anything that the buyer himself wouldn’t know or observe and any fact that materially affects the value of the property. That includes problems that relate to the property itself.

A realtor also has a fiduciary duty to his or her client, a duty to protect the client, and to maximize the sale price (or minimize the purchase price, in the case of a buyer). These fiduciary duties can put even more obligations on realtors.

Realtors and brokers generally don’t have to tell buyers about things or conditions that aren’t on or part of the property which could be found through a public records search.

Remember that just because a broker has no obligation to disclose something to a client, doesn’t mean they can lie or misrepresent facts, when asked by their client.

If you have a commercial litigation case or a real estate dispute we can help. Get help. Call the West Palm Beach commercial litigation lawyers at Pike & Lustig today.

Sources:

foxbusiness.com/real-estate/owner-who-sold-billionaire-bunker-mansion-discount-sues-realtor-not-disclosing-jeff-bezos-buyer

thefund.com/resources/flarecs/blog/what-real-estate-agents-should-know-about-sellers.aspx