In the event of a dispute over the return or forfeiture of any earnest deposit held by a broker, the broker shall continue to hold said deposit in his or her trust account until he or she has a written release from all parties consenting to its disposition or until a civil action is filed to determine its disposition at which time the broker may pay it into court.
008.01 In the absence of a pending civil action, it shall not be grounds for disciplinary action where a broker returns an earnest money deposit to a purchaser, where the return of such deposit is based upon a good faith decision that a contingency in the purchase agreement has not been met, notwithstanding the failure of the seller to agree to said return.008.02 In the absence of a pending civil action and upon the passage of one-year's time from the date of an accepted offer to purchase, it shall not be considered grounds for disciplinary action for a broker to pay out an earnest money deposit to a seller when the payment of such earnest money deposit has been based on a good faith decision that the buyer has abandoned any claim to such earnest money deposit.299 Neb. Admin. Code, ch. 3, § 008