Sole agency contract and pulling house off the market

RenStar

Hello,
I wonder if anyone can help me with something - we signed up with a national chain of EA (never again!) on the 4th of Jan to sell our property on a sole agency basis for 12 weeks. After about 6 weeks on the market, we decided to take the house off the market as it was clear we were not going to get what we need to move. We did get an offer but it was too far below our bottom line so we decided that if that was the best we could get, we’d have to stay put until things improved a bit as we would lose too much if we sold at the price offered. The problem is compounded by the fact that we bought at the top of the market so as you can imagine, the value of our house has gone down, eroding with it quite a b it of the deposit we originally put down. They took the details down reluctantly after about week and came to collect their board from outside the house.

Anyway, even though we have withdrawn the house from the market, presumably we are still bound by the terms of the sole agency contract till the 12 weeks is up? (this will be on the 29th of March). I read our agreement several times last night and if my understanding is correct, we need to give them 14 days notice to end the agreement otherwise it automatically becomes a multi agency agreement. My question is, having taken the property off the market with them, if we were to give them the required 14 days notice to end the agreement at the end of the agency term; do we still ‘owe’ them 5/6 weeks? Do we still have to give them the 14 days notice in writing seeing as we have informed them both verbally and via email that we are withdrawing from the market previously? Its just that we’d like to try selling the house ourselves or via an online agent later on this year to minimise the cost of moving and we don’t want to leave ourselves open to being sued by the original agent. Can anyone offer any advice about this at all?

Thanks in advance.

googler

After about 6 weeks on the market, we decided to take the house off the market as it was clear we were not going to get what we need to move.

After only 6 weeks? Haven't you been watching the news? Do you read the papers? We're in a recession/depression. The housing market is quieter than it has been. Don't you think you need to leave your house on the market longer to sell it, because there's fewer buyers out there?

googler

I would have thought that 'cancelling the agreement' and 'taking the house off the market' are one and the same thing......

G_M

do we still ‘owe’ them 5/6 weeks?

Do you mean owe them £ ? Depends on your contract but usually nothing is owed unless the property is sold.

For the avoidance of doubt, put in writing that you are withdrawing the house from the market and hence terminating your sole agency as of (date 12 weeks from start).

That way if you go back to the market with another agent later, the 1st agent cannot claim they still have a sole agency agreement with you.

However, if you go to a new agent between now and the 12 week point, you'll still be in trouble since this was a minimum term.

Check also (for future reference too) you have a 'sole agency' agreement, not 'sole selling'. In the latter, you'd have to pay the agent even if you sell privately. If you have 'sole agent' agreement, selling privately is fine as there is no other agent involved.

RenStar

googler wrote: »

After about 6 weeks on the market, we decided to take the house off the market as it was clear we were not going to get what we need to move.

After only 6 weeks? Haven't you been watching the news? Do you read the papers? We're in a recession/depression. The housing market is quieter than it has been. Don't you think you need to leave your house on the market longer to sell it, because there's fewer buyers out there?

Thank you googler, yes I watch the news and I read the papers everyday and know what's going on. Please refer to the rest of my post where I state: as it was clear we were not going to get what we need to move. We did get an offer but it was too far below our bottom line so we decided that if that was the best we could get, we’d have to stay put until things improved a bit as we would lose too much if we sold at the price offered. The problem is compounded by the fact that we bought at the top of the market so as you can imagine, the value of our house has gone down, eroding with it quite a b it of the deposit we originally put down.

I hope this makes our reason for withdrawal clearer.

The trouble is, I'm not sure that taking the house off the market and cancelling are quite the same thing.

RenStar

G_M wrote: »

Do you mean owe them £ ? Depends on your contract but usually nothing is owed unless the property is sold.

For the avoidance of doubt, put in writing that you are withdrawing the house from the market and hence terminating your sole agency as of (date 12 weeks from start).

That way if you go back to the market with another agent later, the 1st agent cannot claim they still have a sole agency agreement with you.

However, if you go to a new agent between now and the 12 week point, you'll still be in trouble since this was a minimum term.

Check also (for future reference too) you have a 'sole agency' agreement, not 'sole selling'. In the latter, you'd have to pay the agent even if you sell privately. If you have 'sole agent' agreement, selling privately is fine as there is no other agent involved.

Thank you very much - I will put the notice in writing for the avoidance of doubt. Yes, we checked to make sure it was sole agency rather than sole selling rights before we signed.

Thanks again.

googler

My point is, I don't see how it can be 'clear' that you won't get a better offer within only 6 weeks.....

RenStar

Oh I see, Well, the estate agent told us when we got the offer that that was a realistic offer for our property (despite advising us to put our property on the market for 12K more than the offer. presumably to get our business but that's another subject!). Also, as more properties like ours started coming on to the market, it was becoming quite clear that the amount ours was on for was optimistic at best! It may just be me but in the 6 weeks we were on, 4 similar properties went STC with other agents within 2-3 weeks of being on for sale. I didn't want our property to sit on the market for yonks as it'd look like we were 'deluded sellers' and given the market, and the price we were on for, that would not have been an unfair observation. We therefore decided if we were to sell at the current going rate, we'd rather not give the EA a large chunk of it as part of their fee so the only options are to stay put or reduce our selling fees accordingly. Incidentally, we did ask the agent if he'd reduce their fee (it was a fixed fee service, never doing that again either!) to allow us to take the lower offer and he said no. You live and learn.

C_Mababejive

The sooner Tesco get into the EA market,the better..

googler

C_Mababejive wrote: »

The sooner Tesco get into the EA market,the better..

Why?

(MSE says type more than 10 chars, so -

Why? )

Really2

googler wrote: »

Why?

(MSE says type more than 10 chars, so -

Why? )

So it can be a monopoly by one company instead of thousands competing for business? (good for tesco maybe the only people it would be good for)

I think a giant EA would be so much worse when did the last time a monopoly on a market became a good thing?