Plaintiffs Entitled to Return of Down Payment When Mortgage Application Denied, In Spite of Failure to Apply for “No Income Check” Mortgage

The Second Department determined that it would have been futile for the plaintiffs to apply for a no-income-check mortgage so their failure to do so did not allow the defendants to hang on to the plaintiffs’ down payment:

Here, the plaintiffs made a prima facie showing of their entitlement to judgment as a matter of law on their cause of action for return of their down payment by submitting evidentiary proof demonstrating that they applied to an institutional lender for a mortgage three days before the contract to purchase the defendants’ property was fully executed, that their application was denied through no fault of their own, and that they gave the defendants timely notice that they were exercising their right to cancel the contract pursuant to the mortgage contingency clause … . Under the circumstances of this case, the plaintiffs’ failure to additionally apply for a no-income-check mortgage, as required by a rider to the subject contract, did not raise an issue of fact as to whether they made a good faith effort to secure mortgage financing. The plaintiffs’ mortgage application was already pending as of the date of the contract, and the plaintiffs’ evidentiary submissions demonstrated that it would have been futile for them to additionally apply for a no-income-check mortgage in view of the lender’s determination that, based on their credit history, they were not eligible for a mortgage of any kind … . Etienne v Hochman, 2013 NY Slip Op 02373, 2011-08896, Index No 23466/08, 2nd Dept, 4-10-13