Where a buyer has a right to notify the seller that the contract is terminated under any provision of the contract, you should use the Notice of Buyer's Termination of Contract (TXR 1902, TREC 38-8)). This form was designed to combine the notices of two prior TREC forms and to add a reference to several other paragraphs or addenda where the buyer can notify the seller that the contract is terminated. This form was promulgated by TREC with a mandatory use date of Sept. 1, 2008.

Paragraph 21 of the TREC contract requires that all notices from one party to another must be in writing. TREC has promulgated the Notice of Buyer's Termination of Contract form (TXR 1902, TREC 35-8) for use when a license holder is helping a buyer provide the appropriate notice to the seller of the exercise of his termination option. While a buyer can use any form of written notice to terminate the contract, a buyer's agent asked to help the buyer give the appropriate notice should use the promulgated form. When the appropriate box of the form has been checked, the Notice of Buyer's Termination of Contract form makes it clear that the buyer intends to and is giving the appropriate notice to the seller of his election to terminate the contract under the provisions of Paragraph 5. While one might believe that the buyer has made the decision to terminate the contract under his termination option by sending the seller or his agent a signed Release of Earnest Money form (TXR 1904), showing the earnest money being released to the buyer and indicating a release of all rights or liabilities under the contract, a court might not agree that this writing satisfied the buyer's notice requirements under Paragraphs 5 and 21 of the contract. The preferred practice would be for a buyer's agent to have a buyer who intends to exercise his termination option under the provisions of Paragraph 5 use the Notice of Buyer's Termination of Contract form and send the signed form to the seller at the address specified in Paragraph 21 or by other method specified in that paragraph. The Release of Earnest Money form could be signed and included with the notice form to facilitate the execution of that form by the seller. Practice Note: This same procedure of sending both the TREC notice and the Release of Earnest Money form to the seller can be used when the buyer is giving notice to the seller of the termination of the contract under any paragraph of the contract or any contract addendum.

In this situation, you can use Amendment to Listing (TXR 1404). A provision in the amendment states that the seller is instructing the broker to cease marketing the property until further notice or until a specific date. The provision states that the listing is not terminated and remains in full effect.

If the seller is contemplating signing a listing with another broker, the seller will likely not agree to sign the amendment and this could lead to further discussions. If you determine that you wish to terminate the listing agreement, you can use Termination of Listing (TXR 1410). This form provides for early termination of a listing and determines whether the broker will receive compensation for early termination.

Yes, the Notice of Seller's Termination (TXR 1950, TREC 50-0) may be used to allow the seller to terminate due to the buyer's failure to deposit earnest money timely. This form must be sent to the buyer prior to the buyer delivering the earnest money pursuant to Paragraph 5 of the residential contract.

TXR form 1904 used to be entitled Termination of Contract and Release of Earnest Money. The title of the form was changed for several reasons, but primarily to avoid confusion between this form and other forms that are actually notice forms executed by a buyer to notify the seller of the buyer's termination of the contract under a right contained in the contract. (Examples include the notice of termination under paragraph 5 or the third-party financing condition addendum of the TREC contracts or a notice of similar contractual termination rights that a buyer has under the TXR commercial contracts.) Notwithstanding the change of the form's title, the Release of Earnest Money form does contain language whereby the buyer and the seller release each other from all liability under the contract referenced in the form. This language has the legal effect of terminating all of the rights the parties have under the contract and thus terminates the contract itself. In your example, if both the buyer and the seller sign the form as written, then the seller can consider that the contract has been formally terminated.