Will I owe the Estate Agent any fees

moneybunny123

Months ago, we had our house up for sale with Estate Agent No 1. They sent plenty of people around, and we received offers but they were too low and the offers were rejected.

Soon after, we changed agents (to Estate Agent No 2). Our circumstances changed and we saw a house that we were interested in that was considerably lower than we had budgeted for, enabling us to take a lower price for our house.

We remembered the name of one couple that made an offer on our house and, wondering if they were still interested, made contact with them via facebook (of all places!). After a day, we'd heard nothing, so contacted our current Estate Agent (No 2) to ask if they had the couples name and number on their books. Later that afternoon, we received a call from Agent No 2 to say that they had contacted the couple and that they may still be interested.... Later the same day, the couple also replied to our facebook message to say that they were still interested. They have since been back round to our house and it looks like they may wish to purchase it.

However, will we need to pay Estate Agent No 2? I've checked the contract with Agent No 1, and no fees are payable if we exchange "unconditional contracts" with a "Buyer Introduced by Them after 6 months of terminating Our contract" with them (which will be very soon). Estate Agent No 2 did not introduce this couple to us - and in fact, if we had been more patient, we needn't have even asked Agent No 2 to make contact as the couple would have replied to our facebook message and we could have just dealt directly with them.

PasturesNew

On what date did the couple see your house?
On what date did your contract with EA1 terminate?
Did EA1 give you a written list of viewers, to be passed to EA2 as "theirs"?

You might have had to pay EA2 even if the couple had responded directly to your FB intervention, it depends on the wording in their contract - go dig their contract out now and look for terms such as "sole agency" etc and type up that paragraph here.

At the moment it's a whole heap of potentially having to pay somebody the fees, maybe even both of them.

mrs-h_3

I would imagine yes you will as you have made the EA aware... and any offer will now go through them but im sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong!

themull1

Yes, you will have to pay estate Agent 2, and if still within the 6 months contract, probably estate agent 1 as well.

kingstreet

You've muddied the waters somewhat by involving agent 2 in a situation which really only involved you and agent 1.

Agent 1 may have introduced the "ready, willing and able purchaser" during their sole agency period which would give them a right to their fee. However, you indicate that more than the necessary six months has passed since their agreement ended, so any sale to their purchaser would be outside a run-off period.

Agent 2 has not introduced the buyer as they have already seen the property through another agent. It is irrelevant if the purchaser now makes an offer through agent 2 as it is the introduction, not the offer, which counts.

I would contact agent 2 immediately and tell them you cannot proceed until agreement is reached with them over the fee issue. In the interim, contact your potential purchaser and ask them to deal directly with you until you can resolve the issue.

moneybunny123

We are almost at the end of the 6 month cool-off period with EA1, so therefore no fee payable to them. The couple interested in our house have no interest in going through the agents at all - they have said that they will deal with us direct - including any offers/negotiations. They even said that EA2 only had their contact details because the couple had registered an interest with ANY properties in our village with all agents via Rightmove.co.uk.

EA1, as far as I know, didn't pass on any list of interested parties to EA2 when we swapped over, because we didn't tell EA1 that we were re-advertising with a different agent. We just told them we were withdrawing it from the market.

It seems very unfair that EA2 should get any money from us when a) they have done nothing) and b) are continuing to do nothing.

moneybunny123

PasturesNew wrote: »

On what date did the couple see your house?
On what date did your contract with EA1 terminate?
Did EA1 give you a written list of viewers, to be passed to EA2 as "theirs"?

You might have had to pay EA2 even if the couple had responded directly to your FB intervention, it depends on the wording in their contract - go dig their contract out now and look for terms such as "sole agency" etc and type up that paragraph here.

At the moment it's a whole heap of potentially having to pay somebody the fees, maybe even both of them.

The paragraph re: sole agency from AE2 is as follows:

You will be liable to pay remuneration to Us, in addition to any other costs or charges agreed ('The Fees'), if at any time unconditional contracts for the sale of the Property are exchanged with a purchaser Introduced by Us during the Period of Our sole agency or with whom We had negotiations about the Property during that Period; or with a purchaser Introduced by another agent during that Period. 'Introduced' means the buyer became aware that the Property was for sale as a result of any literature, advertisement, for-sale board, email or any other communication whatsoever.

Likewise with EA2's contract, there is a clause that says they will give up their right to the fee if a sale is agreed six months after the termination of our contact with them. I'm no idiot, and I realise this means that if I serve notice on the EA today, I'd still be liable to pay their fee if this couple buy the house within the next 6 months.

neverdespairgirl

mandbaby wrote: »

or with whom We had negotiations about the Property during that Period;

Think you could be got on this bit.

moneybunny123

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Think you could be got on this bit.

Hmmmm, yes, I can see why they might try and get us on that. However, the way I see it, they have done no negotiations. All they did was ring them up to say that we might now consider a lower offer.

I can see no way out of this other than to come clean with EA2 and explain our dilemma and ask what the situation is. I'm loathed to do that because I think they'll come after their full fee. But it's been so undeserved. They've only sent two viewers round and neither were interested!

moneybunny123

What are the chances of an Estate Agent (either 1 or 2) finding out that we sold our house to someone who they introduced months ago??

How would they know unless they spend their days scouring land registries (which I seriously doubt if their competence so far is anything to go by)

daisymay2008

mandbaby wrote: »

What are the chances of an Estate Agent (either 1 or 2) finding out that we sold our house to someone who they introduced months ago??

How would they know unless they spend their days scouring land registries (which I seriously doubt if their competence so far is anything to go by)

slightly different but we had ours up with an agent then a girl from work was interested, she is in the process of buying our house and didn't go through my agent i took it off the market a few weeks ago.... as far as i'm concerned they won't be getting a penny, if they do find out i've sold and threaten court then bring it on, my buyer never looked on right move and will say that in court if required also i get free legal cover at court so i'm not worried in the slightest, my solicitor told me not to tell them and wait and see what happens