Advice re sacking agents and fees

Gemmai

Hi all,

I'd like a little bit of advice if anyone can help.

Our house has been on the market for over 7 months and we have not had a single viewing.

It went on the market at £107,950 at the agents advice, despit me specifically asking if that was overpriced, they insisted it wasn't and that we should put it on with a view to accepting £100-£105K

Anyway, after several weeks and no viewings they recommended we drop the price, so it went down to £105,000. 2 weeks passed - nothing, so we called them and asked them to take it down to £97,950.....several weeks still nothing!

8 weeks ago we dropped the price again, and began marketing at offers over £90K. 4 weeks ago we held an open house... you guessed it not a singler viewer!

Clearly something is not right, either the house is still overpriced at £90k, or the estate agent is just rubbish!

I am inclined to think the latter sinse they have made minimal contact with us, when I called to find out what we could do to entice some potential buyers I got fobbed off with a lame excuse about all the first time buyers going for the newbuilds round the corner (£120K and half the size of ours). Sinse our open house 4 weeks ago they haven't even bothered to call and ask if anyone came!

Anyway, I wrote to them and told them we were cancelling our contract and no longer wanted them to be our estate agent. I've had no reply, but they have been and collected the board from outside and taken us off rightmove.

This morning an invoice arrives for £180

It does say in our contract that if we take the house off the market this fee will be incurred, however I really don't feel that they have earned it and I don't want to pay it.

We really can't afford to go lower than £90K, if the agent had told us in the first place that even at £90K we still wouldn't get viewings we'd never have put it on the market, and wouldn't be faced with this fee and a whole lot of wasted time and hope.

My question is really do I have to pay it?

What if I don't pay it and decide to go to another agent?

Our current contract says it will not be terminated until the invoice is paid, does that mean if I don't pay it that they will charge us selling fees if we then sell via another agent (the contract seems to imply that they will)

Thanks in advance.

Gemma

G_M

Impossible to answer without seeing the precise wording of the contract you signed wih them.

hazyjo

You would probably have to declare it as a joint agency fee or something...

Personally, I would make an appointment to see the top-bod of the EA. Don't go in all guns blazing, but say is there any way you can come to an agreement and that you have been extremely upset at the way you've been treated. I'd be hinting that they might as well do nothing and take £180 off of people...

Some EAs do overprice. You should really have got 3 valuations done, and checked the terms to see if there was a get-out fee.

Can we see a link to the house? Might be that they're just rubbish and have put down wrong info, rubbish pics, or that there is something obviously wrong with your property that would put any potential viewers off before even having to see it.

(btw, not sure why you stayed with them for 7 months without a viewer!)

What area are you in? Are other properties selling?

Jx

Gemmai

Ok here's what it says:

We are required by law to advise you in the following terms:-
7 This contract gives us SOLE SELLING RIGHTS. you will be liable to pay renumeration to us, in addition to any other costs or charges aggreed in each of the following circumstances-
(a)if unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged in the period during which we have sole selling rights, even if the purchaser was not found by us but by another agent or by any other person including yourself.
(b) if unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged after the expiry of the period during which we have sole selling rights but to a purchaser who was introduced to you during that period or with whom we had negotiations about the property during that period.
8 Should we introduce a uyer who is ready , willing and able to proceed through to completion with a sale, then you the vendor pull out prior to contract echange, we will claim full fees.
9 This contract may be terminated by us giving you two days written notice or by you giving us forteen days written notice. Termination of the contract shall be without prejudice to any rights or remedies that have already accrued to us.
10 In the event of the termination of this aggreement as provided for the above (clause 7) prior to the renumeration becoming payable the following charges will become payable by you within 14 days of the date of our account.
(a) The deferred set up fee as described overleaf plus VAT is to cover initial set up costs of work provided i.e. market appraisal appointment, board, adverts, photos, brochures, floor plans and virtual tours etc. The set up costs are defferred until the property is sold and are included in the sale fee. Should you decide to withdraw the property off the market then the set up fee becomes payable within 14 days.
(b) Should the property remain on the market unsold for a period of 12 months or more then we retain the right to be able to terminate the contract at which point our set up fees will become payable.

....The contract goes on but I don't think the rest is relevant. The deferred set up fee is £150 + VAT. This is what we have been charged. My gripe is that I feel that this contract was mis-sold to me, we would not have put the house on the market if we had known that even at £90K we wouldn't get any interest. They clearly over priced it, not just a small amount.

I appreciate it's not an exact science but I wonder how much discrepancy is reasonable when valuing houses? We trusted our agent to give us an accurate valuation, at the time we specifically asked them to be realistic and not over price it, they insistsed that they had!

DRP

Gemmai wrote: »

Ok here's what it says:
(b) Should the property remain on the market unsold for a period of 12 months or more then we retain the right to be able to terminate the contract at which point our set up fees will become payable.

:eek:
that just about takes the biscuit!

Taiko

I'm sure there was a similar thread up recently, HAART estate agents or something. Not sure if that'll throw up any lines of attack? Certainly sounds like it's a cunning ploy to grab free money for no effort.

Gemmai

I'm not sure why we've stayed with them so long to be honest...ever hopeful that one day the perfect buyer would come along I guess.

They've taken us off rightmove now, but if you go to zoopla and search wf93jn under current values, it is number 10. Those are the photos taken by the EA, what do you think?

It won't let me post a direct link as I am a new user.

We are west yorkshire, just south of pontefract. the market is slow, very slow, but from what I keep reading on here houses WILL sell if they are priced right? Is that really true? I know very little about house prices, hense why we enlisted the help of an EA to guide us on the price and I feel they have let us down drastically!

Gemmai

DRP wrote: »

:eek:
that just about takes the biscuit!

I know, I am horrified with myself for signing it to be honest! i just assumed all EA contracts would be much the same and went with the one who seemed to have the most properties in the area....I figured that's where potential buyers would go first when they were looking.

G_M

My guess is that, if you compared agents fees befor signing up with this one, you went with the cheapest.

Sole selling rights agreements are not common (sole agency is more common) but generally the fees are lower (since they will be paid whoever introduces a buyer).

So - you have (I'm guessing) an agent offering to sell for a very low fee.

But that agent has costs to cover and work to do. Indeed, although I accept you are unhappy with the results, they have done some work and incurred costs on your behalf.

As the contract says, they are happy to re-coup those costs out of the sale fee once the property is sold.

But the contract you agreed to makes clear that if you withdraw, thus denying them any chance to recoup via the sale fee, they will charge you their 'set up' costs (£150).

It is not a standard agreement, but it is clear, and fair, in that they are charging you for work done.

The lesson is never to sign contracts without
a) reading and understanding them and
b) comparing them with competitors contracts - not just the fee, but the terms.

Gemmai

We had them and one other agent in.

To be honest there are virtually no other agents in this area, the one we used has a massive monopoly, which is why we went with them as we figured they would be a buyers first port of call when they started looking for houses.

The other agent did quote a lower price, but admitted he wasn't very familiar with the area and was basing his quote based on a couple of other houses in the steet, mainly the one next door, which sold for £88K in 2010 and we happen to know was in a terrible state inside when it sold, been empty for a while and was flooded due to a burst pipe, it was horribly damp, needed gutting and starting again.
Ours on the other hand is completely redone on the inside, new kitchen, bathroom, utility room etc. so we'd expect to get a bit more even with house prices dropping.

The fees were to be 1.35% for the agent we chose or 1.5% with the agent from a bit further out, not a massive difference really but I don't know if the contracts would have been any different.

I wonder if anyone knows how much an EA can 'over value' a house before it becomes an arguing point?
I ask because we really would not be in this position if we'd been told in the first place that even at £90K we'd still not get viewers.

DRP

Gemmai wrote: »

We had them and one other agent in.

To be honest there are virtually no other agents in this area, the one we used has a massive monopoly, which is why we went with them as we figured they would be a buyers first port of call when they started looking for houses.

The other agent did quote a lower price, but admitted he wasn't very familiar with the area and was basing his quote based on a couple of other houses in the steet, mainly the one next door, which sold for £88K in 2010 and we happen to know was in a terrible state inside when it sold, been empty for a while and was flooded due to a burst pipe, it was horribly damp, needed gutting and starting again.
Ours on the other hand is completely redone on the inside, new kitchen, bathroom, utility room etc. so we'd expect to get a bit more even with house prices dropping.

The fees were to be 1.35% for the agent we chose or 1.5% with the agent from a bit further out, not a massive difference really but I don't know if the contracts would have been any different.

I wonder if anyone knows how much an EA can 'over value' a house before it becomes an arguing point?
I ask because we really would not be in this position if we'd been told in the first place that even at £90K we'd still not get viewers.

Honestly, no one can tell you that with total confidence.

In terms of valuation, you ought to be able to get good advice from the 'expert' estate agent BUT it in the end it is your responsibility where to set the asking price so you must use common sense and do a lot of research.