Agency refuses the reservation-fee refund: what now?

The purchase is over, but the agency says the reservation fee is non-refundable, already earned or payable to the seller. Do not argue only about fairness. First establish what the payment legally was, who received and holds it, which promised event failed, and whether the claimed deduction is a commission, contractual penalty, damages or simply money without a remaining legal basis.

Start with the bank trail, not the word “deposit”

• Who sent the amount, from which account and on what date?
• Whose account received it, and does that person still hold it?
• Does the contract call it a purchase-price advance, reservation fee, commission advance, security or contractual penalty?
• Was it meant to be credited to price or commission, and on which event?
• Who must refund it, by which method and within what period?

The account holder, contractual creditor and physical holder can be different. A payment to an agency does not by itself prove that the agency may keep it, that the seller owns it or that it became commission. Ask for the client ledger, current balance, invoice, transfer history and exact clause relied upon.

Classify why the purchase failed

• The bank rejected financing or valued the property too low: use the financing condition, evidence and notice deadlines.
• The seller refused, raised the price or could not sign: identify the seller’s participation and promised next contract.
• A title, document, technical or legal problem emerged: connect it to disclosure, due diligence and cure terms.
• The buyer changed their mind: test consumer protection, the actual parties and any valid seller-buyer duty.
• The agency failed to perform or misdescribed the transaction: separate service performance, fee maturity and the purchase failure.
• The parties validly ended by agreement: read the settlement’s payment and release language, not only the termination sentence.

Route a mortgage failure to the mortgage-rejection evidence guide. If the seller withdrew, use the seller-withdrawal contract-stage guide. This article addresses the next common problem: the money holder still refuses to repay after the transaction route is understood.

Read the reservation as several possible contracts

Label every signatory and promise. One document can combine brokerage service, a promise to reserve, a seller-buyer future agreement, payment instructions, commission and a penalty. The title “reservation agreement” does not determine who owes what. Compare it with the pre-signing reservation checklistand mark which promised next step actually became impossible.

If the seller never signed, the agency’s promise to stop marketing is not automatically an owner’s enforceable promise to sell. Conversely, a genuine seller-buyer obligation should not be collapsed into the agency’s service fee.

Identify the contractual repayment debtor rather than suing the most visible brand or assuming that receipt of the transfer decides everything. The Supreme Court’s reservation dispute 23 Cdo 1666/2023 also shows why every extension, amendment, message, and later performance belongs in the file: whether a change required writing depends on the underlying obligation and any agreed form rule. It does not make every alleged oral variation valid.

Consumer protection can defeat the wrong kind of penalty

Section 14 of the Real Estate Mediation Act prevents a brokerage agreement from imposing on a consumer the obligation to conclude the property or future property contract. In case 33 Cdo 1507/2022, the Supreme Court treated the particular three-party “reservation agreement” as a brokerage agreement and rejected the intermediary’s contractual penalty for not buying; the lower courts ordered the reservation fee returned.

This is powerful but not a one-sentence refund rule. The result still depends on whether the claimant is a consumer, the document is substantively brokerage, the penalty secures failure to conclude with a third party, and who received the money. Use the decision’s reasoning, not just its headline.

Test Sections 11 and 12 separately. A broker must provide a sufficiently current public-register extract and specified information about defects, restrictions, and third-party commission. Missing statutory material may support withdrawal from the brokerage agreement, but still has to be connected to the particular repayment debt rather than treated as a universal cancellation.

Test any “14-day withdrawal” against the actual relationship

Sections 1829 and following of the Civil Code regulate withdrawal from qualifying distance and off-premises consumer contracts, including rules for requested performance and completed services. A remotely signed file can contain both a brokerage service and other transaction promises. Electronic signature alone does not make every property obligation cancellable in the same way or determine the entire fee balance.

Preserve the signing process, consumer information, request to begin service, work actually completed and withdrawal notice. Have counsel classify the relevant contract before relying on or rejecting the 14-day route.

Ask which legal basis remains for keeping the amount

• Price advance: what happens when the purchase contract never arises or validly ends?
• Commission: which brokerage service, maturity event, invoice and Section 19 terms support it?
• Contractual penalty: which valid duty, creditor, breach and calculation under Sections 2048–2051?
• Damages: which loss, breach, causation and evidence—not merely the amount received?
• Set-off: which due counterclaim was communicated against which refund debt?
• Unjust enrichment: did the original legal basis never exist or later cease under Section 2991 and following?

Do not let the same amount become commission, penalty and damages at once. Demand an itemised calculation and the date each asserted claim arose. A party relying on set-off should identify the counterclaim rather than say only that the fee “forfeited.”

Separate a complaint from a repayment claim

A complaint to management, a franchise, trade authority or supervisory body can document conduct but does not itself transfer the money back. Address the repayment demand to the correct debtor and separately copy any holder whose instruction is needed. Verify the company name, registration number, registered office, data-box details and whether the agency named in marketing is the same legal person that signed and received payment.

Send a quantified demand, not an emotional timeline

Attach a short index of the agreement, payment proof, failed-condition evidence, notice and refusal. Keep the full story in a chronology for counsel; the demand itself should make debtor, amount, basis, due date and evidence easy to verify.

Use a formal pre-action demand before court

Section 142a of the Czech Civil Procedure Code gives a pre-action demand procedural importance for litigation-cost recovery. A lawyer should verify the correct debtor, service address, amount, legal basis and timing before filing. Also assess default interest, limitation and whether the claim should seek payment, an accounting or both.

Do not threaten criminal proceedings merely to accelerate a disputed civil refund. Preserve evidence of genuinely deceptive or unauthorised conduct and let counsel decide whether a separate report is justified.

ČOI ADR can help in the right consumer dispute

The Czech Trade Inspection Authority’s current ADR guidancesays its process seeks an agreed settlement; it cannot bind the parties like a court. It covers eligible disputes from sales and service contracts where the claimant is a consumer contracting with a business and can substantiate the claim. The consumer must first try to resolve the matter directly.

ČOI states that an ADR proposal must be filed within one year from the first assertion of the claim against the business. It does not cover a dispute only between private individuals and cannot proceed in parallel once the listed court, arbitration or another ADR conditions apply. Treat ADR as a documented settlement route, not a judgment or a reason to ignore limitation periods.

Build one refund evidence pack

• Signed agreement, annexes, terms, consumer instructions and every version.
• Payment order, bank confirmation, recipient account, reference and ledger request.
• Property listing, offer and representations about price, title, condition and financing.
• Evidence of the failed event: bank decision, seller refusal, title problem, missing document or valid termination.
• All notices, delivery records, agency response, invoice, deduction and set-off statement.
• Company registry details, registered office, data box and identities of signatory, payee and holder.
• A table of principal, claimed deduction, refund due date, interest question and procedural deadlines.

Choose the next route from the evidence

• Clear refund clause and cooperative holder: obtain the ledger and written repayment date.
• Consumer-business dispute with evidence: direct demand first, then consider ČOI ADR within its deadline.
• Invalid penalty or no remaining basis: have counsel frame restitution and any interest precisely.
• Genuine seller-buyer breach or mixed claims: coordinate refund, penalty, damages and set-off without double counting.
• Material sum or approaching deadline: move promptly to a formal demand and litigation assessment.