Contract for house sale advised needed please

sonastin

sm99 wrote: »

If I wait the 6 months then sell, how could they claim their fees after the 6 month period? I'll have waited the time specified

The contract says:

"the client will be liable to pay remuneration to the agent/joint sole agent in addition to any other costs or services agreed if at any time unconditional contracts for sale of the property are exchanged:
(i) With A Purchaser introduced by that agent during the period of their agency sole/joint sole agency or with whom the agent and negotiations about the property during that period "

The bit about after 6 months comes in later in the clause. It was no doubt added to the agent's standard terms after the Foxton v Bicknell court case which said that an agent couldn't claim their fees at any time between now and eternity just because they had shown the buyer the property and they initially didn't want to buy it. No one has tested how the courts would interpret the inclusion of a 6 month deadline given that it doesn't actually relate directly to the bit that says "if we introduce a person and they buy it you owe us a fee".

So if you did terminate the contract and persuade your buyer to wait 6 months and only after then they bought your house, you are still not home and dry. Push it and you could very well end up being the first test case in the courts - which could cost you an awful lot more than the EAs fee.

Given that you aren't so outraged with the EA's poor service that you're still tied to them in your contract, why do you think you have the right to avoid paying them? In my eyes, that makes you as bad as the EA, if not worse.