# Cancel an Expired Escrow

An escrow in the XRP Ledger is expired when its `CancelAfter` time is lower than the `close_time` of the latest validated ledger. Escrows without a `CancelAfter` time never expire.

## 1. Get the latest validated ledger

Use the [ledger method](/docs/references/http-websocket-apis/public-api-methods/ledger-methods/ledger) to look up the latest validated ledger and get the `close_time` value.

Request:

Websocket
{
  "id": 4,
  "command": "ledger",
  "ledger_index": "validated"
}

Response:

Websocket
{
  "id": 1,
  "status": "success",
  "type": "response",
  "result": {
    "ledger": {
      # ... (trimmed) ...

      "close_time": 560302643,
      "close_time_human": "2017-Oct-02 23:37:23",
      "close_time_resolution": 10,

      # ... (trimmed) ...
    },
    "ledger_hash": "668F0647A6F3CC277496245DBBE9BD2E3B8E70E7AA824E97EF3237FE7E1EE3F2",
    "ledger_index": 2906341,
    "validated": true
  }
}

## 2. Look up the escrow

Use the [account_objects method](/docs/references/http-websocket-apis/public-api-methods/account-methods/account_objects) and compare `CancelAfter` to `close_time`:

Request:

Websocket
{
  "id": 2,
  "command": "account_objects",
  "account": "r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT",
  "ledger_index": "validated",
  "type": "escrow"
}

Response:

Websocket
{
  "id": 2,
  "status": "success",
  "type": "response",
  "result": {
    "account": "r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT",
    "account_objects": [
      {
        "Account": "r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT",
        "Amount": "10000",
        "CancelAfter": 559913895,
        "Destination": "rf1BiGeXwwQoi8Z2ueFYTEXSwuJYfV2Jpn",
        "FinishAfter": 559892324,
        "Flags": 0,
        "LedgerEntryType": "Escrow",
        "OwnerNode": "0000000000000000",
        "PreviousTxnID": "4756C22BBB7FC23D9081FDB180806939D6FEBC967BE0EC2DB95B166AF9C086E9",
        "PreviousTxnLgrSeq": 2764813,
        "index": "7243A9750FA4BE3E63F75F6DACFD79AD6B6C76947F6BDC46CD0F52DBEEF64C89"
      }
    ],
    "ledger_hash": "82F24FFA72AED16F467BBE79D387E92FDA39F29038B26E79464CDEDFB506E366",
    "ledger_index": 2764826,
    "validated": true
  }
}

## 3. Submit EscrowCancel transaction

***Anyone*** can cancel an expired escrow in the XRP Ledger by sending an [EscrowCancel transaction](/docs/references/protocol/transactions/types/escrowcancel). Set the `Owner` field of the transaction to the `Account` of the `EscrowCreate` transaction that created this escrow. Set the `OfferSequence` field to the `Sequence` of the `EscrowCreate` transaction.

If you don't know what `OfferSequence` to use, you can look up the transaction that created the Escrow: call the [tx method](/docs/references/http-websocket-apis/public-api-methods/transaction-methods/tx) with the value of the Escrow's `PreviousTxnID` field. In `tx` response, use the `Sequence` value of that transaction as the `OfferSequence` value of the EscrowCancel transaction.

Caution
Never submit a secret key to a server you do not control. Do not send a secret key unencrypted over the network.

Websocket
Request:

{
  "id": 5,
  "command": "submit",
  "secret": "s████████████████████████████",
  "tx_json": {
    "Account": "rhgdnc82FwHFUKXp9ZcpgwXWRAxKf5Buqp",
    "TransactionType": "EscrowCancel",
    "Owner": "r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT",
    "OfferSequence": 1
  }
}

Response:

{
  "id": 5,
  "status": "success",
  "type": "response",
  "result": {
    "engine_result": "tesSUCCESS",
    "engine_result_code": 0,
    "engine_result_message": "The transaction was applied. Only final in a validated ledger.",
    "tx_blob": "1200042280000000240000000320190000000168400000000000000A7321027FB1CF34395F18901CD294F77752EEE25277C6E87A224FC7388AA7EF872DB43D74473045022100AC45749FC4291F7811B2D8AC01CA04FEE38910CB7216FB0C5C0AEBC9C0A95F4302203F213C71C00136A0ADC670EFE350874BCB2E559AC02059CEEDFB846685948F2B81142866B7B47574C8A70D5E71FFB95FFDB18951427B82144E87970CD3EA984CF48B1AA6AB6C77DC4AB059FC",
    "tx_json": {
      "Account": "rhgdnc82FwHFUKXp9ZcpgwXWRAxKf5Buqp",
      "Fee": "10",
      "Flags": 2147483648,
      "OfferSequence": 1,
      "Owner": "r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT",
      "Sequence": 3,
      "SigningPubKey": "027FB1CF34395F18901CD294F77752EEE25277C6E87A224FC7388AA7EF872DB43D",
      "TransactionType": "EscrowCancel",
      "TxnSignature": "3045022100AC45749FC4291F7811B2D8AC01CA04FEE38910CB7216FB0C5C0AEBC9C0A95F4302203F213C71C00136A0ADC670EFE350874BCB2E559AC02059CEEDFB846685948F2B",
      "hash": "65F36C5514153D94F0ADE5CE747061A5E70B73B56B4C66DA5040D99CAF252831"
    }
  }
}

Javascript
    const escrowCancelTransaction = {
      "Account": wallet.address,
      "TransactionType": "EscrowCancel",
      "Owner": wallet.address,
      "OfferSequence": sequenceNumber, // Sequence number
    };

    xrpl.validate(escrowCancelTransaction);

    // Sign and submit the transaction --------------------------------------------
    console.log('Signing and submitting the transaction: ', JSON.stringify(escrowCancelTransaction, null,  "\t"));
    const response  = await client.submitAndWait(escrowCancelTransaction, { wallet });
    console.log(`Finished submitting! \n${JSON.stringify(response.result, null, "\t")}`);

    
Python
# Build escrow cancel transaction
cancel_txn = EscrowCancel(
    account=sender_wallet.address, 
    owner=sender_wallet.address,
    offer_sequence=escrow_sequence
)

# Autofill, sign, then submit transaction and wait for result
stxn_response = submit_and_wait(cancel_txn, client, sender_wallet)

# Parse response and return result
stxn_result = stxn_response.result

# Parse result and print out the transaction result and transaction hash 
print(stxn_result["meta"]["TransactionResult"]) 
print(stxn_result["hash"])

Take note of the transaction's identifying `hash` value so you can check its final status when it is included in a validated ledger version.

## 4. Wait for validation

On a live network (including Mainnet, Testnet, or Devnet), you can wait 4-7 seconds for the ledger to close automatically.

If you're running `rippled` in stand-alone mode, use the [ledger_accept method](/docs/references/http-websocket-apis/admin-api-methods/server-control-methods/ledger_accept) to manually close the ledger.

## 5. Confirm final result

Use the [tx method](/docs/references/http-websocket-apis/public-api-methods/transaction-methods/tx) with the `EscrowCancel` transaction's identifying hash to check its final status. Look in the transaction metadata for a `DeletedNode` with `LedgerEntryType` of `Escrow`. Also look for a `ModifiedNode` of type `AccountRoot` for the sender of the escrowed payment. The `FinalFields` of the object should show the increase in XRP in the `Balance` field for the returned XRP.

Request:

Websocket
{
  "id": 6,
  "command": "tx",
  "transaction": "65F36C5514153D94F0ADE5CE747061A5E70B73B56B4C66DA5040D99CAF252831"
}

Response:

Websocket
{
  "id": 6,
  "status": "success",
  "type": "response",
  "result": {
    "Account": "rhgdnc82FwHFUKXp9ZcpgwXWRAxKf5Buqp",
    "Fee": "10",
    "Flags": 2147483648,
    "OfferSequence": 1,
    "Owner": "r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT",
    "Sequence": 3,
    "SigningPubKey": "027FB1CF34395F18901CD294F77752EEE25277C6E87A224FC7388AA7EF872DB43D",
    "TransactionType": "EscrowCancel",
    "TxnSignature": "3045022100AC45749FC4291F7811B2D8AC01CA04FEE38910CB7216FB0C5C0AEBC9C0A95F4302203F213C71C00136A0ADC670EFE350874BCB2E559AC02059CEEDFB846685948F2B",
    "date": 560302841,
    "hash": "65F36C5514153D94F0ADE5CE747061A5E70B73B56B4C66DA5040D99CAF252831",
    "inLedger": 2906406,
    "ledger_index": 2906406,
    "meta": {
      "AffectedNodes": [
        {
          "ModifiedNode": {
            "LedgerEntryType": "AccountRoot",
            "LedgerIndex": "13F1A95D7AAB7108D5CE7EEAF504B2894B8C674E6D68499076441C4837282BF8",
            "PreviousTxnID": "4756C22BBB7FC23D9081FDB180806939D6FEBC967BE0EC2DB95B166AF9C086E9",
            "PreviousTxnLgrSeq": 2764813
          }
        },
        {
          "ModifiedNode": {
            "FinalFields": {
              "Account": "rhgdnc82FwHFUKXp9ZcpgwXWRAxKf5Buqp",
              "Balance": "9999999970",
              "Flags": 0,
              "OwnerCount": 0,
              "Sequence": 4
            },
            "LedgerEntryType": "AccountRoot",
            "LedgerIndex": "3430FA3A160FA8F9842FA4A8B5549ECDCB3783E585D0F9796A1736DEAE35F6FE",
            "PreviousFields": {
              "Balance": "9999999980",
              "Sequence": 3
            },
            "PreviousTxnID": "DA6F5CA8CE13A03B8BC58515E085F2FEF90B3C08230B5AEC8DE4FAF39F79010B",
            "PreviousTxnLgrSeq": 2906391
          }
        },
        {
          "DeletedNode": {
            "FinalFields": {
              "Account": "r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT",
              "Amount": "10000",
              "CancelAfter": 559913895,
              "Destination": "rf1BiGeXwwQoi8Z2ueFYTEXSwuJYfV2Jpn",
              "FinishAfter": 559892324,
              "Flags": 0,
              "OwnerNode": "0000000000000000",
              "PreviousTxnID": "4756C22BBB7FC23D9081FDB180806939D6FEBC967BE0EC2DB95B166AF9C086E9",
              "PreviousTxnLgrSeq": 2764813
            },
            "LedgerEntryType": "Escrow",
            "LedgerIndex": "7243A9750FA4BE3E63F75F6DACFD79AD6B6C76947F6BDC46CD0F52DBEEF64C89"
          }
        },
        {
          "ModifiedNode": {
            "FinalFields": {
              "Flags": 0,
              "Owner": "r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT",
              "RootIndex": "DACDBEBD31D14EAC4207A45DB88734AD14D26D908507F41D2FC623BDD91C582F"
            },
            "LedgerEntryType": "DirectoryNode",
            "LedgerIndex": "DACDBEBD31D14EAC4207A45DB88734AD14D26D908507F41D2FC623BDD91C582F"
          }
        },
        {
          "ModifiedNode": {
            "FinalFields": {
              "Account": "r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT",
              "Balance": "9999999990",
              "Flags": 0,
              "OwnerCount": 0,
              "Sequence": 2
            },
            "LedgerEntryType": "AccountRoot",
            "LedgerIndex": "F5F1834B80A8B5DA878270AB4DE4EA444281181349375F1D21E46D5F3F0ABAC8",
            "PreviousFields": {
              "Balance": "9999989990",
              "OwnerCount": 1
            },
            "PreviousTxnID": "4756C22BBB7FC23D9081FDB180806939D6FEBC967BE0EC2DB95B166AF9C086E9",
            "PreviousTxnLgrSeq": 2764813
          }
        }
      ],
      "TransactionIndex": 2,
      "TransactionResult": "tesSUCCESS"
    },
    "validated": true
  }
}

In the above example, `r3wN3v2vTUkr5qd6daqDc2xE4LSysdVjkT` is the sender of the escrow, and the increase in `Balance` from 99999**8**9990 drops to 99999**9**9990 drops represents the return of the escrowed 10,000 drops of XRP (0.01 XRP).

## See Also

- **Concepts:**
  - [What is XRP?](/docs/introduction/what-is-xrp)
  - [Payment Types](/docs/concepts/payment-types)
    - [Escrow](/docs/concepts/payment-types/escrow)
- **Tutorials:**
  - [Send XRP](/docs/tutorials/how-tos/send-xrp)
  - [Look Up Transaction Results](/docs/concepts/transactions/finality-of-results/look-up-transaction-results)
  - [Reliable Transaction Submission](/docs/concepts/transactions/reliable-transaction-submission)
- **References:**
  - [EscrowCancel transaction](/docs/references/protocol/transactions/types/escrowcancel)
  - [EscrowCreate transaction](/docs/references/protocol/transactions/types/escrowcreate)
  - [EscrowFinish transaction](/docs/references/protocol/transactions/types/escrowfinish)
  - [account_objects method](/docs/references/http-websocket-apis/public-api-methods/account-methods/account_objects)
  - [tx method](/docs/references/http-websocket-apis/public-api-methods/transaction-methods/tx)
  - [Escrow ledger object](/docs/references/protocol/ledger-data/ledger-entry-types/escrow)