Our Los Angeles Real Estate Attorneys recently litigated the issue of whether an oral revocation of an offer is legally sufficient to revoke a written counter-offer. This issue came upon a decision at the trial court level and the trial court judge ruled that, as a matter of California law, oral revocations are good enough to revoke a written offer.
We represented a real estate broker who’s earned commissions were withheld based on a claim by the client that the broker did not revoke a certain counter-offer in writing, as opposed to the oral revocation completed by the broker. Our real estate lawyers briefed the issue and after some motion practice and oral arguments, the trial court ruled in our client’s favor.
California law is well settled that an oral revocation of a written contract is sufficient. See Cal. Civ. Code § 1587; see also Bellasi v. Shackelford, (1962) 201 Cal. App. 2d 265, 267-68 (“An offer is revoked by communication of notice of revocation… An oral communication meets this requirement.”) (citing Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1581, 1587); see also Brown v. Labow, (2007) 157 Cal. App. 4th 795, 817 (“It is well established that a written offer may be orally revoked.”) Thus, regardless of the use of standard real estate contract forms such as CAR forms (California Association of Realtors forms), an oral revocation communicated to the offeree will suffice to revoke an offer or counter-offer.