Property Survey

An indemnity-holder has the right to recover from the indemnifier all incidental costs which he may be compelled to pay in any such suit if, in bringing or defending it, he did not contravene the orders of the promisor, and acted as it would have been prudent for him to act in the absence of any contract of indemnity,

It's still your business decision whether you sign them or not, but you should do so only where it is a critical contract that you have no way of modifying or negotiating changes. In contrast, the best kind of Indemnity Agreement is commonly called a Mutual Indemnity Agreement or a Mutual Hold Harmless Provision.

Generally, indemnification is the buyer's remedy for a breach of any promises made in the purchase agreement or losses incurred relating to specific liabilities outlined in the purchase agreement. Indemnification allocates the risk of various post-closing losses between buyer and seller.

In practice, a hold harmless and an indemnity are functionally equivalent in that both require a party to assume responsibility for losses incurred by another party in connection with certain acts and circumstances. Some argue that while an indemnity shifts losses, a hold harmless shifts both losses and liability.

The main difference in this case is that hold harmless may require a party to protect against actual losses as well as potential losses while indemnification protects against actual losses only.

With a real estate indemnity agreement, one party is pledging to protect another from any kind of financial loss or from a lawsuit of some kind.With a real estate indemnity agreement, one party, usually the buyer, agrees to take full responsibility for a mistake or a problem caused by the other.

Generally (but not always), California courts agree to provide indemnity for own negligence if the parties use sufficiently specific and explicit language that is strictly construed against the indemnitee.

When the term indemnity is used in the legal sense, it may also refer to an exemption from liability for damages. Indemnity is a contractual agreement between two parties. In this arrangement, one party agrees to pay for potential losses or damages caused by another party.