private sale??

confused31_2

I have been approached by a firend about buying my house, he has not been in touch with our estate agent and they have no idea of him coming around.

We have also never had a sign outside the house so they can not say its through a sign, now he said he his interested, and his willing to give us the asking price, now if i dont go through the estate agent we will both save about 2000 pound, which will pay for the solicitors and give us a bit left after.

Am i better disinstrucing the agent and then do the sale privately? i think this is the best way as it cuts them out completely, i cant see them trying to claim money from us has they will not have introduced the buyer.

what do you people think, we have not had any viewers for nearly 12 months and they got us 5 the one weekend and 2 the other but still no offers.

MissMotivation

Depends on the wording of your contract.

Sole Agency = No fee to pay
Sole Selling Rights = Fee to pay regardless of who introduces the Purchaser

The_White_Horse

i think an agent, to have a right to claim commission, must be an effective cause of the sale.

if your friend knew that the house was for sale, independently of the estate agent, then I think they will have a difficult time convincing a judge they are entitled to commission for doing nothing.

at the end of the day, estate agents are parasites, so do what you want with no regard for them. if they are unhappy, let them sue you.

Poppy9

If they haven't sent you a viewer n 12 months then they are unlikely to smell a rat so just take it off their books. You should be well out of the min. period tie in.

confused31_2

MissMotivation wrote: »

Depends on the wording of your contract.

Sole Agency = No fee to pay
Sole Selling Rights = Fee to pay regardless of who introduces the Purchaser

Well i wont be with them when i sell has i will have to instruct them to take us off the market, we have been with them well over 12 weeks and yes it is a sole agency agreement.

ive just looked through my paper work and we have been with 5 estate agents :eek:including the one we are with now.

Just got to wait then now.has soon has they give me the nod ill dis instruct them .

so if they do come back with a offer i will tell him yes if its acceptable and then give my estate agent 7 days to remove my property from their books.

cheers

alm721

I thought sole selling rights would only be an issue if you sell while still under contract with them. If the sellers cancels the contract and waits out the notice period then sells to a friend would a fee still be payable?

Cleaver

The_White_Horse wrote: »

at the end of the day, estate agents are parasites, so do what you want with no regard for them.

If the OP thought this then he wouldn't have instructed them in the first place though.

Just out of interest how have you sold property in the past when not using estate agents Mr Horse?

The_White_Horse

Cleaver wrote: »

If the OP thought this then he wouldn't have instructed them in the first place though.

Just out of interest how have you sold property in the past when not using estate agents Mr Horse?

I have had to use the parasites - but on that occassion, they provided the buyer.

If they didn't provide the buyer, I would not have paid them.

In fact, my place was leased whilst it was on the market and the parasite refused to place a for sale sign in the window. gave various useless excuses. however, when it sold, a SOLD sign was in the window real quick. I told him to remove it. I said, if you can't put a for sale sign up, then you won't put an advert for your firm up. I gave him two days to remove it. After a few weeks, it was still there.

Therefore, I charged him for advertising space and knocked a few hundred quid off the commission. He protested, but I said "sue me". He never did.

Parasites, the lot of em.

Brizzo

I'm in a similar-ish situation where I'm selling to a friend but now the agent are claiming a fee
Their contract says
Sole Agency Rights
You are appointing us as agents with sole selling rights and will be liable to pay the fee if unconditional contracts are exchanged in the period of this agreement, even if the purchaser was not found by us but by another agent or any other person, including yourself.

We are now out of the termination period and they've come for their fee as they sent a mailshot along with many others to my friend. I know after the Foxtons case they probably haven't got a leg to stand on, but they sent me a letter saying I've signed a sole agency agreement, so how come they can put sole selling rights as a sub-comment in their contracts? Which rule do I follow - sole agency or sole selling? Parasites!!

alm721

The EA that has just done the same thing to my sister also states sole selling rights and sole agency rights on the same contract so I'm pretty sure that that is ok and would thinks its probably normal. The point is if you were outside the agreement period then sole selling rights don't apply and if you sold privately then sole agency rights don't apply. Therefore you should have no fee to pay. The issue is whether having sent a mailshot to your friends constitutes 'having found the buyer' this is the part thats hard to decide.

confused31_2

surely If there a friend they woudl turn round and say they had not recieved any mail shot the only way they can prove they have sent a mails shot is if its recorded delivery.