Florida Earnest Money Forfeiture & Recovery Calculator

How this calculator works

A failed Florida residential real estate transaction always raises the same question: who gets the earnest money? The answer turns on the contract — usually the Florida Realtors / Florida Bar ("FAR/BAR") standard contract or its "AS IS" variant — and on a small handful of Florida statutes that overlay it. This calculator implements the headline framework: which party recovers the deposit, why, and what the recommended next step is for each side. It is a planning tool for buyers, sellers, listing brokers, and counsel evaluating a deposit dispute before formally escalating.

The four headline outputs:

1. Forfeiture verdict — Buyer recovers, Seller forfeits as liquidated damages, or Disputed (the escrow agent holds pending F.S. § 475.42 resolution).
2. Dollar split — the projected amount each side receives, given the verdict.
3. Contingency window analysis — the live status of the inspection, financing, HOA/condo, and title contingencies relative to the current day-into-contract.
4. Recommended action for both buyer and seller, including the FAR/BAR Section 16 mediation path and the F.S. § 475.42 / FREC dispute procedure when the verdict is disputed.

The FAR/BAR Section 18 framework

FAR/BAR Section 18 is the contract's default clause and the foundation of every Florida earnest-money analysis. The framework is intentionally simple:

• Buyer default — Seller's exclusive remedy is retention of the earnest money as liquidated damages. Additional damages and specific performance are waived. The narrow exception is a checkbox at contract execution: if the seller checked the "Seller may sue for damages" box, additional-damages claims are preserved. Most Florida sellers do not check the box because Florida brokers counsel against it — certainty of the liquidated-damages remedy is preferred to the cost and risk of follow-on litigation, and lost-market damages are difficult to prove.
• Seller default — Buyer recovers the deposit AND may pursue specific performance or damages. Real property is presumed unique under Florida law; specific performance is routinely granted by Florida circuit courts against a defaulting seller of a residential property. The buyer's leverage is meaningful.

That asymmetry is intentional. The deposit caps the buyer's downside; the seller is exposed to specific performance plus damages on the other side. Both parties price that risk asymmetrically when negotiating the deposit amount.

The contingency windows that protect the buyer

A buyer who cancels inside an active contingency window recovers the deposit in full. The calculator models four contingencies:

• Inspection contingency — FAR/BAR "AS IS" Rider Section 12. Default 15 days from the effective date. During this window the buyer may cancel for ANY REASON — no defect identification required, no negotiation required — and the deposit returns. This is the strongest protection in the contract and is what makes the "AS IS" framework operator-friendly for buyers in Florida. Custom contracts sometimes shorten the inspection period to 5 or 10 days; the operator overrides the default in the calculator input.
• Financing contingency — FAR/BAR Section 8. The contract specifies a Loan Commitment Deadline (typically 30 to 45 days). If the buyer has pursued financing in good faith and cannot obtain a written loan commitment by the deadline, the buyer may cancel and recover the deposit. After the deadline passes, financing failure is a buyer default that forfeits the deposit. Cash contracts have no financing contingency.
• HOA / condo review — F.S. § 718.503 (condo) and § 720.401 (HOA). Florida law gives buyers a 3-business-day right of cancellation after delivery of the association's governing documents (condo: declaration, articles, bylaws, rules, Q&A, financials; HOA: the one-page disclosure summary). The clock does not start until disclosure is delivered; if the seller never delivers, the cancellation right runs until closing. The statutory right is in addition to any contractual contingencies and cannot be waived.
• Title contingency — FAR/BAR Section 9. The buyer is entitled to a title commitment showing marketable title. Uncured title defects within the 30-day cure window entitle the buyer to cancel and recover the deposit.

Disputed deposits and F.S. § 475.42

When buyer and seller both claim the deposit and the broker (or title company) holding it has a good-faith doubt as to who is entitled, F.S. § 475.42 and FREC Rule 61J2-10.032 require the escrow agent to:

1. Notify the Florida Real Estate Commission within 15 business days of discovering the dispute.
2. Hold the deposit in trust pending resolution. The broker may not unilaterally pay either side.
3. Follow one of four prescribed dispute-resolution paths: mediation under FAR/BAR Section 16; binding arbitration; interpleader to circuit court; or a request for an Escrow Disbursement Order ("EDO") from FREC itself.

Resolution typically runs 60 to 180 days depending on the chosen path. Mediation under FAR/BAR Section 16 is the cheapest and fastest path; Florida brokerages routinely refuse to release a disputed deposit without either a mutual release, a mediator's signed settlement, an arbitration award, or a court order. The prevailing-party attorney-fee clause in most FAR/BAR contracts means an obviously-meritless deposit dispute exposes the loser to fee-shifting — which is the single best practical reason for both sides to resolve through mutual release when one side has a clean documentary record.

A worked example: financing fail at day 45

A buyer makes an $8,000 deposit (2 percent of a $400,000 purchase price) on a FAR/BAR contract with a 30-day Loan Commitment Deadline and a 45-day close. At day 45, the buyer's lender pulls the commitment over a debt-to-income recheck. The buyer notifies the seller and demands return of the deposit.

The calculator returns: Seller forfeits ($8,000 to the seller). The Section 8 financing contingency expired at day 30; the buyer's financing failure 15 days later is the canonical Section 18 buyer default. The recommended seller action is to request a mutual release and instruct the escrow agent to disburse. The recommended buyer action is to request a release that confirms the forfeiture is in full satisfaction of all claims — without that release, the buyer risks additional-damages exposure if the seller checked the Section 18 damages box.

The strategic read: even when the buyer has a sympathetic story (lender pulled the commitment unilaterally), the contract is the contract. Florida sellers regularly retain the deposit on this fact pattern, and Florida courts regularly enforce it.

What the calculator does not do

This is a planning-stage estimator. It does not:

• Replace Florida real-estate counsel. Earnest-money disputes turn on specific contract terms, documentary records, the broker's good-faith analysis, and case-specific facts. Consult a Florida-licensed real-estate attorney before signing a release or initiating litigation.
• Model custom-rider modifications to FAR/BAR Section 18 (e.g., bespoke liquidated-damages caps, specific-performance carve-outs, or seller-side damages preservation).
• Project mediation, arbitration, or interpleader costs. F.S. § 475.42 dispute-resolution paths run $1,500 to $10,000+ depending on the path and complexity; the calculator surfaces the path but does not price it.
• Handle commercial transactions or non-FAR/BAR contracts. Commercial real estate, new-construction builder contracts, and custom-drafted residential contracts have materially different default frameworks.

How this page is maintained

The FAR/BAR standard contract is revised periodically by Florida Realtors and The Florida Bar; the cited section numbers reflect the current operative version as of the last review date. F.S. § 475.42, § 718.503, § 720.401, and FREC Rule 61J2-10.032 have been stable in their core structure for years; we monitor each Florida legislative session for amendments and refresh the substantive analysis after every revision. Cost components track the Florida real-estate-litigation market.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-15 against F.S. § 475.42 (broker escrow handling), F.S. § 475.25(1)(d) (escrow discipline), F.S. § 718.503 (condominium right of cancellation), F.S. § 720.401 (HOA right of cancellation), FREC Rule 61J2-10.032 (escrow-dispute procedures), and the FAR/BAR Standard Contract (Sections 8, 9, 16, 18) including the "AS IS" Rider Section 12 inspection period.