Once the money has reached the escrow account, it will stay there until both parties have confirmed that the handover is complete. But if one party creates a complaint during the payment process, here is what will happen then:
What happens if only one party has confirmed the handover?
There is no reason or benefit for us to deliberately hold the money in the escrow account, our intention is always to pay out the money to the seller as soon as both parties have confirmed that the handover went smoothly. If one party does not confirm the handover, a payout will not be automatically initiated from the escrow account. This is how we make sure that the purchase sum gets paid out correctly:
If more than 10 DAYS (including holidays) have passed since the first party confirmed the handover, we will interpret the counterparty’s inactivity as an indirect confirmation that everything has gone as planned with the handover and we will manually pay out the purchase sum to the seller. During these 10 days, we will try our best to get in touch with the remaining party so they can confirm the handover themselves.
This will be the case no matter if it is the seller or the buyer who has confirmed the handover.
However, there are some exceptions to this rule. If the payment has been paused or cancelled, the 10-day rule does not apply. Neither does it apply if one of the parties has created a complaint before confirming the handover.
What happens when a complaint is created and the money is in the escrow account?
Important to remember is that our decisions are not legally binding. Therefore, we can not guarantee that the party who receives the payout is actually allowed to keep it.
The parties must take the issue to court and let the court decide on who is in the right, as it is the court that has the mandate and competency to do so and their decision is binding. Therefore, whoever receives the purchase sum from the escrow account should set the money apart and refrain from using it until they have had a final verdict from a court.
Please note that the parties can anytime come to a mutual agreement on their own outside of our dispute assistance, in this case, we recommend that the parties document this agreement in writing.