Estate agent withdrawal fee

dld2s

Hi all, does anyone know if it is legal for a estate agent to charge you a withdrawal fee to take your property off the market?

Forgot to add, it's in Scotland and I have not signed any agreement with them but they have been marketing the house for a couple of weeks now, with th wrong price and infornation for the first week or so may I add

DVardysShadow

Yes it is legal. You also have to pay it if it was in the contract, but not if it was not. I think that if you don't want to pay it, you will get further by proving it was not due than by attempting to challenge the legality.

googler

It's legal, and lots do it.

If you didn't sign a contract, did you sign anything to give them the authority to sell your house?

Have you asked them for a copy of any agreement which has this withdrawal fee specified?

dld2s

thanks all, it's not actually for me but my son, he says he didn't sign a contract, not sure if he signed anything at all but will have to speak to him again when he comes in this evening just to be certain he didn't sign anythng else

chickmug

dld2s wrote: »

thanks all, it's not actually for me but my son, he says he didn't sign a contract, not sure if he signed anything at all but will have to speak to him again when he comes in this evening just to be certain he didn't sign anythng else

I don't know of any EA who would start the marketing without an agreement being signed. Some may make a (nominal perhaps) start but if they didn't have the signed document within a day or two they would stop.

Always

My second EA did this, despite promising me all sorts it took them two or three weeks to even take any of their own pics, the information on their website about the house was at best spelt wrongly and at worst just wrong, and as of yesterday they had still not sent a contract and I hadn't signed anything so I emailed them to exaplin how disappointed I was and that I would not be using their services after all. They replied, "Okay then" :rolleyes: Honestly why bother to say they wanted to take on the house if they were planning to do nothing..

Anyway OP, if your son has not signed ANYTHING I would get him to consult with CAB as to the legalities.

chickmug

I have posted this on another thread today but it is from the NAEA Code of Practise.

2. Instructions

a) By law you must give your client written confirmation of his (see 10 below) instructions to act in the buying or selling of properties on his behalf. You must give the client written details of your fees and expenses and of your business terms. You must give the client these details before he is committed or has any liability towards you.