The contract was cancelled and both sides want the deposit. What does the title agent do?

Not the title agency. The deposit belongs to whichever party the contract says is entitled to it, and deciding that is a question about the contract: whether the cancellation was timely, whether a condition failed, whether someone defaulted. Those are legal questions, and the answer comes from the parties themselves or from a court.

The title agency's job is narrower and stricter. Fla. Stat. § 626.8473 makes funds a title agency receives in escrow trust funds, held in a fiduciary capacity, the property of the persons entitled to them. It also says they may be used only in accordance with the escrow, settlement or closing instructions under which they were accepted. When buyer and seller give conflicting instructions, there is no instruction the agency can follow. So it follows neither.

Most Florida residential sales are written on the Florida Realtors/Florida Bar forms. This page quotes the "AS IS" Residential Contract For Sale And Purchase, 2026 revision (form ASIS-7x). Its paragraph 13 is written for exactly this situation.

• What the agent may do. "When conflicting demands for the Deposit are received, or Agent has a good faith doubt as to entitlement to the Deposit," the agent may keep holding it "until the parties agree to its disbursement or until a final judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction shall determine the rights of the parties." Or it may deposit it "with the clerk of the circuit court having jurisdiction of the dispute."
• What that does to the agent's liability. Once the agent notifies all parties of the action it has taken, its liability ends, except for accounting for anything it had already paid out of escrow.
• Fees. If the agent is made a party to a case between buyer and seller, or interpleads the deposit, it "shall recover reasonable attorney's fees and costs incurred, to be paid pursuant to court order out of the escrowed funds or equivalent."
• Brokers. If the agent is a licensed real estate broker, it must follow chapter 475 and the Florida Real Estate Commission's rules instead. That procedure is described below.

A contract that is not on a standard form may say something different, and whatever it says is what governs. That is one reason the escrow terms are among the first things we read when a file opens.

Often it is, quickly. Under paragraph 12(a) of the AS IS contract, a buyer who decides the property is not acceptable may terminate "by delivering written notice of such election to Seller prior to expiration of Inspection Period." If the buyer "timely terminates," the deposit "shall be returned to Buyer." When the seller agrees the notice was timely, the seller signs a release and the deposit goes back.

It stops being quick when the seller disputes the notice. Maybe it arrived after the inspection period ended, or it went to the wrong person. Two points in the contract bear on that, and both are for the parties' lawyers to argue, not for us to decide:

• Who can give notice. Standard O makes notice given by or to a party's attorney or broker "as effective as if given by or to that party." It also says notices "must be in writing and may only be made by mail, facsimile transmission, personal delivery or email."
• When the period ends. The inspection period is the number of days written into paragraph 12(a), or 15 if it was left blank, counted from the effective date.

A cancellation notice is still one party's statement of its rights, not an instruction from both. The contract has no provision that releases the deposit just because the other side stays silent. What releases it is the parties' agreement, a court judgment, or a deposit with the clerk.

Paragraph 16 of the AS IS contract sets the order. Buyer and seller "will have 10 days after the date conflicting demands for the Deposit are made" to try to resolve it themselves. If they don't, they "shall submit such Dispute to mediation," with a certified mediator or one with real estate experience. Only a dispute that mediation does not settle goes to court. Under paragraph 17, the parties split the mediation fee equally, and in any lawsuit the winner recovers fees and costs from the loser.

That timetable binds buyer and seller. It does not change what the escrow agent may do. Paragraph 13 still governs the deposit while they work through it.

There is, but it is for real estate brokers, not title agencies. Under Fla. Stat. § 475.25(1)(d), a broker holding a deposit who faces conflicting demands must promptly notify the Florida Real Estate Commission and promptly choose one of four routes: an escrow disbursement order from the commission, arbitration, mediation (both only with everyone's consent), or a court case, by interpleader or otherwise.

When the broker is holding the deposit, that procedure applies, and paragraph 13 of the AS IS contract requires a broker acting as escrow agent to follow it. When the title agency is holding it, the contract's escrow clause and the courts apply, and there is no commission order to ask for. Parties often assume otherwise, so our notice says which applies.

A court case that makes the claimants argue with each other rather than with the escrow agent. Rule 1.240 of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure lets a party facing claims that could expose it to double liability join the competing claimants as defendants and require them to interplead. For a deposit, that means buyer and seller both claim the same money, and the agency asks the court to decide which of them gets it.

The contract covers the practical side. Under paragraph 13 of the AS IS contract, the agent may deposit the funds with the clerk of the circuit court, and it recovers its reasonable attorney's fees and costs from the escrowed funds by court order.

It is the route when the parties will not sign anything and neither sues. It costs the parties money, because the agent's fees come out of the deposit, and that is often what gets a release signed first.

Whenever either party wants to contest the other's claim. Whether a cancellation was valid, whether a default happened, and whether the seller may keep the deposit as damages are legal questions with money attached. A Florida real estate attorney can advise on them. We cannot.