Doesn't sound like agent is giving legal advice. Sounds like one title company is telling them the title is clouded and seller's previous title company has a different opinion.

Buyers agent appears to be taking the conservative tack and advising their client not to get into this mess.

Doesn't mean you can't continue to fight for the earnest money (although that might present its own challenges) but going after agent's E&O sounds like pissing in the wind to me. If anything, you should go after the local title company.

They don't, so it sounds like they're relying on the local title company.

Go after them! Hoa's, while a nice idea, just always seem to attract /be the scum of the earth worst people.

In 2008 we purchased a small builder foreclosure house in Springfield Missouri for my Mil,who had managed to refi her paid off house into foreclosure (but that another story.). She was going to pay rent, wait that's another story too. Hoa, yeah, back to the hoa story..... When we closed there was absolutely no mention of an hoa. Nothing in the closing documents. We signed nothing about an hoa. It was a newer neighborhood, hence the builder foreclosure part.

3 years later we received a certified letter saying we owed 75 dollars for 3 years of dues to the hoa and like 5000 dollars worth or penalties and late fees. Yes, the hoa dues were 25 bucks a year. Initially we tried to be nice. Contacted the "treasurer" listed on the letter and explained that 1) we were never informed there was an hoa. 2)we had never received a statement or bill. Our Dallas address is listed clearly on all documents and we had told the Mil to disregard anything that came to her (not that she would have forwarded anything.)

Said treasurer was a complete ***** and explained that a lien had already been filed and we had to pay and she was not willing to budge.

Now we were pissed. A little research found that in MO it is really easy to file a lien, but you better be correct. If filed without true cause and evidence the penalty STARTED at 3 times the lien amount on the entity that improperly filed it.

We double checked all our paperwork and did some research. Come to find the hoa was defunk when we purchased due to various issues on their part. Hence why we never knew about it.

Found the "president's" contact info and contacted him with a friendly letter explaining the facts and that they were very likely to lose at least 4 years worth of the TOTAL dues they collected in this crappy little neighborhood because they had no legs to stand on. That we were happy to pay the 75 bucks but the lien and penalties needed to go away immediately, because if we had to go to court we would not stop at the minimum automatic compensation amount and would happily bankrupt them for their bs. Wasn't really what we wanted, but we were pissed. Thankfully, he was reasonable and immediately agreed.

Through the years, sometimes we get the bill, sometimes we don't. Can't even just preemptively send a check because the address changes. But now I know to watch for it.

Compete waste of time and oxygen.