commission pay on leaving (estate agent)

village_saver

I am thinking of leaving my job (to go abroad for a year).

Currently my wage consists of basic pay & commission.

The commission is paid in arrears once the properties have exchanged contracts-usually 3/4 months after the sale is agreed.

Obviously the sales booked before I go won't exchange for some time-am I entitled to ask for monthly payments of this money?

The probable figure is in the region of £3750, so you can see it is quite a considerable part of my salary.

Anyone know where I stand legally? there is nothing in my contract to cover this & I work for a small independent company where I've been employed full time for 10 years.

suroben

Can't see any reason why you should get monthly payments. Your commission is payable on exchange of contracts so expecting a monthly payment when the deals may not even complete is a bit optimistic.

village_saver

suroben wrote: »

Can't see any reason why you should get monthly payments. Your commission is payable on exchange of contracts so expecting a monthly payment when the deals may not even complete is a bit optimistic.

I'm not hoping for a fixed monthly payment. I would only hope to be paid on sales that I put into the pipeline that went on to successfully exchange after I left.

I may take legal advice to see where I stand as I feel it is a substantial part of my income & part of my salary package.

anamenottaken

What exactly does it say in your written particulars regarding the calculation of the commission payments?

It may not say what happens if you are not in their employment when the sale is completed but you are required to have written particulars on how your pay is calculated when you are working for them.

Sambucus_Nigra

Surely someone has left the same job at the same company in those 10 years and you observed what happened to their commission?

pinkshoes

I'd say you'd be entitled to any commission for any properties that exchange BEFORE you leave, but for those that exchange after, how will you be able to prove that one of your collegues hasn't had to work on it too? You'd probably be entitled to a proportion of the commission, depending on when it completes after your finish day.

(Otherwise if you weren't getting the commission, there would be no incentive for the sale to go through, so you would do no work at all in your last month related to sales!)

DKLS

I would imagine you would lose any commission on those sales that clear after you leave.

Where I work we are on annual bonus, cut off point is end of december, but not actually paid until the march payroll.

If you leave the company before the march payroll, you get zip, hence why we always have a load of resignations first week of april.

somethingcorporate

If you are not employed when the properties complete and this is the trigger for commission then the chance of you getting paid it is slim to nothing.

Russe11

This is the sort of thing you need in the contract for employment when you agree it, near impossible to hae any legal reason otherwise.

Verbal agreement from employer is best you may get.