Estate agents fees

giddingsno1

I am soo peeved off, I just had a call from my estate agent. They have had my house on the market for 6 months now - the contract was only for 12 weeks and they haven't sold it despite a fair amount of viewings.

I sent them a letter last week to give them two weeks notice and now they are getting shirty with me. They said that I have to pay a HIPS fee. I don't know why because in the contract its states that it is free with conveyance and that doesn't happen until the house has been sold and the contracts have been signed (even though I did have stuff come through from their solicitors at the time of putting the house on the market but I didn't sign and send it back), also they have now told me that there is a get out fee of 149 + VAT.

How the hell can they enforce that (the get out fee mainly) when the contract expired 12 weeks after it was signed. It has been on with them for 6 months so that has given them a good amount of time to sell it.

Please help!!

MissMotivation

Why didn't you question this at the time of signing their agreement??

Did you not read it?

princeofpounds

Read your contract properly and any terms and conditions of service you were given.

If the get-out fee is not in there, you don't have to pay it. If the HIP is called free, it's free, unless there are conditions attached.

googler

Like they said, read your contract (which was probably for a minimum of 12 weeks, not just that)

giddingsno1

Thanks for you help I have re-read the contract and on closer inspection it does state these cost but if the contract expired then how can a contract be legally enforced, surely that fees would only be payable if the I decided to end the contract early?

I was not told of any of these costs when signing up, he assured me that we wouldn't have to pay the HIPs pack if they couldn't sell the property.

Besides this I refuse to pay these costs and they can keep the house on their books which will in turn end up costing them more money

Fire_Fox

If they have provided a steady supplier of viewers then they are obviously marketing the property well. If nobody is putting an offer in then is the price too high or does the house need maintenance/ cleaning/ decluttering?

chickmug

It is normal that the contract would not be for a fixed period of 12 weeks, or any other period, but that was the minimum period. Only then, after this minimum period of time, would you have been able to cancel it.

Cancelling by giving a specified (in the contract) amount of written notice.

So sorry but the contract would of still been running at six months and you cancelled it not them. And you say you did write and cancel so you need to honour the contract which you signed.

giddingsno1

The house is very up together and very modern and always clean (I think I am a bit of a clean freak!!), I think it was just the slow market which has put people off, even though I have been told that it has started picking back up again. The house was on their valuation and I was told that it was 'priced to sell' as it was valued at approx 20k more around 6 months previous to putting it on the market.
I have learnt valuable lessons - never trust anyone. They are so eager to get your house on the market they neglect to provide you with all the info!

confused31_2

giddingsno1 wrote: »

I am soo peeved off, I just had a call from my estate agent. They have had my house on the market for 6 months now - the contract was only for 12 weeks and they haven't sold it despite a fair amount of viewings.

I sent them a letter last week to give them two weeks notice and now they are getting shirty with me. They said that I have to pay a HIPS fee. I don't know why because in the contract its states that it is free with conveyance and that doesn't happen until the house has been sold and the contracts have been signed (even though I did have stuff come through from their solicitors at the time of putting the house on the market but I didn't sign and send it back), also they have now told me that there is a get out fee of 149 + VAT.

How the hell can they enforce that (the get out fee mainly) when the contract expired 12 weeks after it was signed. It has been on with them for 6 months so that has given them a good amount of time to sell it.

Please help!!

youve been ripped mate, big long thread about estate agency fees, i dont think you will get much symapathy from googler, chimmug and miss motivator they are all estate agents or ex estate agents who are used to all these tricks estate agents use.

The Hip ones a good one, if you decide to leave them anytime you have to pay for the hip and i bet its over 300 pound plus vat, the only way you can leave them and not have anything to pay out is if they sell your house, and then you will have to pay a big fee, a lot of people by me got suckered onto that one.

googler

confused31 wrote: »

youve been ripped mate, big long thread about estate agency fees, i dont think you will get much symapathy from googler, chimmug and miss motivator they are all estate agents or ex estate agents who are used to all these tricks estate agents use.

What happened to "basing arguments on facts" (your words in the other thread) ???

You think you know our status, but you don't. Not really.

giddingsno1

ok how long does a contract run for indefinitely it seems that no one knows thanks all the same .