Can any legal experts offer me any advice re EA contract....?

GDB2222

moneybunny123 wrote: »

They sent me an invoice with the 50% fee saying it was the new, final reduced fee (or words to that effect - hubby has it at work with him atm). It was only withdrawn VERBALLY by tha idiot iin our meeting. Even in his subsequent letter summarising our meeting he admits that the other partner had made the unconditional offer for me to settle and that he'd let that partner have the final say.

Well, you could argue that the offer to settle for 50% was still open. It just seems silly to have left this open. All you needed was to write to them beforehand to say that you were prepared to offer 50%.

wastedtalent

must-resist-ebay wrote: »

I don't want to sound negative but I don't agree that the estate agents haven't got a case due to the time elapsed since termination, from the extract of the contract you posted there seem to be two pertinent parts;



I read this part as saying that fees are payable if you sell to anyone that has been introduced while the contract was in force.



This clause merely states that within 6 months of termination the full fee is payable, as nothing is specified for the amount of fee payable after 6 months this must be open to negotiation.

There is perhaps some argument over the precise meaning of the term purchaser, one could base a defence on Foxton's vs Bicknell where there was no intention to purchase on initial introduction however in this case it seems that an offer was made by the eventual purchaser during the period of the contract so arguably he was prepared to purchase, it was just that the negotiations took some time.

I would follow GDB2222's suggestion of initiating a complaint with a very low offer to settle (I would probably start at 5% initially) but be prepared to negotiate.

Following on from this I guess:

The one thing they can't dispute, is that outside of the 6 months the 'full' fee wouldn't apply.

However, as you've paid part of the fee, what may be disputable is the percentage of the full fee. As it's only a short time after 6 months, they may say 90% is fair, I'm no expert though. Depends how much they're after, clearly to me if they ask for full it'd get thrown out?