Estate agent introductions

lilyann1

Help!! First EA contract 6 weeks,only 2 viewers in first 4weeks then we give notice to end contract and so we get nearly 2 viewers per day!!!! Find out alot of them aren't even on market yet, so cancel last 2 viewings near end of contract.

EA tells us that if anyone of these people they have arranged to view our house,even if they never viewed it ,end up buying it through our new agent anytime in the future, then we are still liable to pay their fees even tho' our sole agency contract is ended and they never viewed the house.The EA did this quite alot gave us names then cancelled viewings.

Now on with new agent and one of those cancellations have been to view it by seeing it advertised on the property website.

I am worried that if these people want to buy it of course we have to pay our new agent,but also that the old agent wants their fee too !!!!!!

If anyone can help I'd be grateful

david29dpo

what did the first contract say? did you read it before signing? it cannot be open ended for ever! ours is 6 months after cancellation if they can prove the buyer first saw it with them.

lilyann1

Our first contract said '' You will be liable to pay commission, if at any time,contracts of exchange for sale of the property with a purchaser introduced by us during the sole agency period or with whom we had negotiations with about the property during that period''

My thread on it is that in the last few days of our contract the first agent would get phone calls from people asking them to value their own property for possibly going on the market.They would tell these people to come and view our house just so they got introductions,but we found out and cancelled many of these viewings,so surely if the people have never viewed the house before they cannot be an introduction????

lilyann1

Also yes I never got to read the contract before signing as they glossed over it very quickly just filling in our name etc and said sign here and they didn't even put the fee in til I asked them how much their fees would be!!!!

zappahey

lilyann1 wrote:

Also yes I never got to read the contract before signing as they glossed over it very quickly just filling in our name etc and said sign here and they didn't even put the fee in til I asked them how much their fees would be!!!!

A bit late now perhaps but that was very, very silly. Never sign any contract without reading the entire document and make sure that you clarify everything you're not sure about.

silvercar

At the end of hte day the EAs are going to have to sort out by themselves who gets the commission. Clearly only one of them introduced any particular set of buyers so they can fight over who gets the commission.

zappahey

silvercar wrote:

At the end of hte day the EAs are going to have to sort out by themselves who gets the commission. Clearly only one of them introduced any particular set of buyers so they can fight over who gets the commission.

Unfortunately it's not likely to be that simple. The vendor has the contract with the EA, so if the EA believes they are due commission they will come looking for the vendor, not the other EA.

rizla01

Your new EA will put your mind at rest, ask them.

He will also be aware of the antics of the original Ea and if not may ring them up and whisper a few sweet words to the tune of 'F**k Off!!'

An introduction isnt an introduction if they aren't introduced to you or your property.

The Judge would laugh them out of court and they know it. They are trying it on.

Why not give the name of the EA so that others can be wary.

Jorgan_2

Ask your current EA to put in writing the names & part of the addresses of all those people that have viewed the property so that you can be clear who has viewed what, when & thru who. Make this list available to your new agent. If any party on the list comes back via the new agent you should advise them to deal with the introducing agent. If you don't you may be liable for two sets of fees.


As for people who haven't actually viewed the property & you being charged a fee by the first agent, I think they will be on very weak ground. Try & find out from your agent what forms an effective introduction, usually it is aviewing, some will say a For Sale board. If they say its off the board ask them for details of the 5,000 or so people who pass the board each day.

I have carried out viewings with buyers on properties that have been on with 2 or 3 agents, on more than one occassion people have told me thay were due to see the house with x agents, but we could do the viewing before the other agent. They have gone onto buy the property & the vendor paid a fee to us not the other agent.

lilyann1

Yes thanks for that. My new agent has told me that only people who have VIEWED the property through the previous agent and then go on to buy would make us incur the 2 sets of fees. I think it is the previous agent trying it on saying well they were going to come and view but cancelled.