Can an Estate Agent do this regarding a contract?

googler

You must have said to the agency at some point - "Yes, I want you to market my property" for the second time, otherwise they wouldn't have put a new board up.

If you hadn't accepted the re-instatement of this old contract, then you would have said "No I don't accept your terms" and they wouldn't have gone ahead ....

I'm scratching my head as I type. They can't reinstate the old contract unless you instructed them to do so. Why would you do this if you didn't accept the terms of it?

stilltrying2

googler wrote: »

You must have said to the agency at some point - "Yes, I want you to market my property" for the second time, otherwise they wouldn't have put a new board up.

If you hadn't accepted the re-instatement of this old contract, then you would have said "No I don't accept your terms" and they wouldn't have gone ahead ....

I'm scratching my head as I type. They can't reinstate the old contract unless you instructed them to do so. Why would you do this if you didn't accept the terms of it?

At no time were we given an option or asked if this was Ok with us, simply TOLD that they would reinstate the old contract (verbally) to which I replied "I see". Once given time to digest this, we are not happy with what THEY TOLD us was happening. At no point have either of us said "Yes, thats fine" or signed anything agreeing to that. The agent has simply made the descision without discussion or choice.
As said before, without anything from us us in writing, as we HAD to do to teminate the original contract, I fail to see how anything they have done so far is contractural or commital in the eyes of the law.

googler

You asked them to market the property for rent as well as for sale - although you have no written contract for this, it sounds to me you've agreed verbally to a contract with them. They obviously think you asked them to market it, or else they wouldn't have put a board up.

At the meeting where you asked them to market it the second time - at that meeting, did you decline the terms of business, saying "No I don't want you to market it" ? Or did you say "Yes, I want you to market it"

If the latter, when the agent said they would re-use the previous contract, did you at that point say No, I don't want to do that or did you give them the go-ahead to market it?

stilltrying2

googler wrote: »

You asked them to market the property for rent as well as for sale - although you have no written contract for this, it sounds to me you've agreed verbally to a contract with them. They obviously think you asked them to market it, or else they wouldn't have put a board up.

At the meeting where you asked them to market it the second time - at that meeting, did you decline the terms of business, saying "No I don't want you to market it" ? Or did you say "Yes, I want you to market it"

If the latter, when the agent said they would re-use the previous contract, did you at that point say No, I don't want to do that or did you give them the go-ahead to market it?

OK, so, by "Saying" that we wanted them to market the property for sale and rent, they can choose what terms and conditions without discussion with us, is that what you are saying?
Far from having any meeting with them,all was done by telephone, nothing regarding contracts was discussed, it took a telephone call from myself regarding no contract being contained within the property details pack they posted to us, to be told what they had taken it upon themselves to reinstate an old, cancelled contract instead of offering us a choice or new onw. It was done and dusted without any input from ourselves, hence, now we are informed about how THEY decided to contract us, we are not 100% happy with THEIR descision on our behalf.

50plusabit

I would suggest you get this sorted asap. Write a letter to the agent, stating you asked for a new contract on "such and such a date", and were informed that they would use the old contract. Say this is not acceptable as there are a number of issues you are not happy with. "list the new conditions, not sole agency, the boards, and also if they are advertising it to let, you need to sign a landlords authority to let, and there are many different terms for that"
Say if they are not willing to accept these terms, then please remove my property from your books, as I have not signed anything to say I am selling through you.
Ask for a answer with in 72hrs.
Remember, YOU are the client and in this market YOU have the upper hand.
Good Luck.

googler

So, when they said they'd reuse the original contract, IMHO, by your silent acceptance of that statement, you've effectively given them the nod to go ahead on that basis.

"I see..." Not quite a YES, but also not quite a NO. Tacit acceptance in the eyes of the law? I'm not sure.

You don't seem to have raised any objection at this point, but seem to have reached your conclusion after reflecting on events after leaving the agent's office.

In between leaving this meeting at the agent's office and deciding you weren't happy with their terms, were you actually expecting them to put a board up, put the property in their window, advertise it, etc? Were you and they actively under the impression that they were going to market it?

Edit - OK I see it was a phone call

googler

Is your agent a member of either the OEA or NAEA for sales, or of the ARLA for letting?

If any of these, there are codes of practice on these org's websites, relating to how the agent should set out their terms in writing to customers

However, there seems to have been a verbal instrn from you to proceed (in the phone call), and the contract, or lack of, was then discussed after you'd received a 'property details pack'. I got the impression from your orig post that all this was discussed at an initial meeting at first, then the agent put board up, etc....

What were you expecting to happen after the initial phone call? Were you expecting them to send a pack and put the board up, etc? Or were you expecting them to send a contract for you to sign, and THEN they'd go ahead with the marketing processs?

I agree broadly with the 50plus poster; write to the agent, tell them you don't accept the terms of business without a new written contract in a form acceptable to you, and if such a contract isn't in place within a certain timeframe, that they should withdraw all marketing of the property immediately.

stilltrying2

I think I need to clarify our issue once more.

The property was with this agent until last May, their contract ran its time and we cancelled to change agents. Recently, we decided to use the first agent once more, (verbally by telephone, no metting) all that was discussed was the asking price (they advised we put £5,000 onto what we suggested as it was too cheap in their eyes).

We waited for a contract to fall onto the door mat, all that arrived was the a copy of the property details. We immediately telephoned the agents to ask where the contract was, remember the last one was cancelled, finished, ended, they said that THEY had decided to simply reinstate the original contract once more. This was done without any confirmation or discussion with us, we do not wish to have the same conditions attached, we wish to drop the "Sole Sellers" rights and have now contacted them to inform them of our wishes.

We simply fail to see how any EA can reinvent any contract that has been cancelled or simply be allowed to assume that what they decide to do, without discussion or approval, is any sellers actual wishes.

This is all recent, not historical. We have not simply read the original contract and decided at a later date that it is not right for us, it has been automatically enforced on us by the EA.

As said, we have contacted the EA today to tell them a) that we are not happy with what has been done and b) the need for the "Sole Sellers" wording to be removed.
We will wait and see what actually happens next week when the boss sees our wishes,no doubt I will need to update you all then.

Doozergirl

I don't understand what all the stressing is for. You just ask for a new contract. If you didn't tell them you wanted different terms then you can't blame them for simply going on the same terms as before.

As someone has already said, they aren't legal bods either, they are EAs. They've not written out a new contract simply because they haven't felt that they needed to. That would be ignorance on their part, not a calculated decision to annoy you.

Instead of wording your disapproval all you need to do is negotiate the deal that you failed to do when you reinstated them. You are as much responsible for the perceived mess as they are - in fact, I'd say you're entirely responsible for winding yourself up. why wait for the contract to hit the mat if you knew what the wording would be and didn't like it? They're not psychic. You have to communicate with people for them to know what you want - do that instead of worrying about it in the middle of the night and asking people on the internet whether the EA has broken the law - do want a relationship with these people or a fight?

Sorry to be frank but there is barely an issue here at all; just deal with it like the business transaction that it is and get new terms or walk away - like you should have done during the initial phonecall before the board even went up again.

googler

So, after the phone call,

(a) You were expecting the agent to send you a contract, but, although you'd "decided to use the first agent once more, (verbally by telephone)" you didn't think you'd actually instructed them to go ahead at this point.

(b) The agent, on the other hand, WAS under the impression you'd definitely asked them to market the property (by implication under the same terms as before, since there'd apparently been no discussion at this time of a new contract or any revision of their terms of business).

If I were the agent, I wouldn't have done anything without a new contract, but as I see it, the problem all stems from the two of you being poles apart as above in the initial phone call, and the apparent difference in expectation you both had at the conclusion of it.

Look forward to hearing the boss's response to your letter on Monday..... TTFN