what happens to real estate escrow if it isn't used?

I don't know Pennsylvania law; I'm a Realtor in Virginia. But generally money can be released from escrow only with the concurrence of both parties. So, the money will just sit there.

Does the buyer have a certain amount of time to have this done? What did the sales contract (and inspection addendum) say? If it required that the work be done within a certain period, then yes. If it didn't require the work to be done within a certain period, then no.

However, it's not really your money. You agreed to pay some money toward the installation of a radon system. If the owners had installed the system, the money would be gone. If they install it next week, the money will be spent. The fact that they've chosen not to install it (yet) doesn't mean it's no longer to be used for that purpose.

I'm perplexed by a few things, however. Very often in the case you described you might be asked to escrow funds. However, the buyer generally wouldn't be. Second, what's going on with an attorney who can't locate his clients? Have they abandoned the property? Maybe it's been foreclosed upon, and they no longer even own it.

In that case (I'm not a lawyer, so this isn't legal advice), it may be possible to get a court to order the release of the funds. That's an option to explore with your lawyer.

Hope that helps.

I have this exact situation. The HOA voted that new roofs were to be installed on each unit at a cost of $2,000. The buyer demanded that we pay this. It was put in escrow. The sale closed. It turned out the HOA vote was not properly done. It was re-voted and did not pass. We asked for our money back but the escrow company said we could not unless the buyers agreed. They did not agree. It is many years later and the money is still sitting there. No new roofs.

We would have had to write that the money be refunded to us if the roof were not installed within 2 years; but the buyer would never have agreed so we would have lost the sale.

So the money sits in escrow..