Am I liable to anyone

andrewison

Here is an example of a situation I am in , I went to estate agents A and asked to view a house. After going to view the house I told the buyer I was interested. I offered a price and he said it was too low. However this house was being advertised by 2 estate agents , estate agent A and estate agent B . He said if I told estate agent A (who sent me there) that I wasnt interested and then told estate agent B that I wanted the house. Estate B is cheaper (has a set price ) than Estate agent A (who does a percentage). Is the any chance that I am liable for any comeback if I went with estate B.

i hope this made sense

nearlyrich

Sounds very complicated but from what you have said if you have an offer accepted it would be agent a who got the commission, the vendor decides on the price the house is sold for not the buyer or the estate agent. I suspect the vendor is trying to get a lower commission figure by suggesting you go with agent b. You don't pay the commission so it's not your problem.

Pennywise

Agent A will also try to claim commission as they will claim that they introduced you - their standard terms & conditions will almost certainly include such provision to cover for this eventuality. You may not think this is your problem, as it is the seller who is liable for the estate agent's fees, but you are very likely to get caught up in the cross-fire and the seller will expect you to lie for them to claim that it was not agent A that introduced you after all. The seller is playing a dangerous game and could get himself into trouble, which may well have repercussions on you. To be honest, I'd tell Agent A what the seller has suggested and just walk away and leave them to it. If the seller is being dishonest in this way, what other dishonesty may be involved?

Jorgan_2

If Agent A finds out & trys to claim their fee the seller may also ask you to increase your offer at a later stage to cover his extra cost.

courtjester

It's a simple question of fact - irrespective of what the buyer or the vendor 'says' happened, the first agent will be able to show that they were the first to introduce the buyer to the property. They have registered the buyer and arranged a viewing - if the property subsequently is sold to that same buyer (a matter easily determined from the Land Registry), but via a different agent, this will not change the vendor's liability to the first agent, who will doubtless take the vendor to court if they refuse to pay up.

Any attempt to conspire against the agent to distort the facts about how and when the property was sold would be fraud which could involve criminal proceedings.

From a buyer's perspective, it is entirely unnecessary to get embroiled in such considerations - there is no advantage in 'helping' a vendor to save money on their agent's fees, particularly if this involves dishonesty.