Sole agency agreement - Estate agents issue

oceansize

[FONT=&quot]In a nutshell..

My mum placed her house up for sale last year through ES1 and one person (Mr. A) was really interested in buying the house but couldn't follow through. The agreement with ES1 expired.

This year she signed up with ES2 with a sole agency agreement. They found a potential buyer but that fell through because they couldn't get a mortgage. The agreement is still running.

Now ES1 has said come back and said Mr. A is interested in purchasing the house. However ES2 wants to pursue a fee if the sale goes through. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]ES1 has cited a missing 7 day cooling off period in the agreement with ES2 that could declare their contract null and void.

Obviously my mum doesn't want to pay 2 fees and is getting pretty stressed about the situation. Is there any advice anyone could give? It would be gratefully received![/FONT]

Better_Days

What do the contracts that your Mum has signed with the EA's actually say? Are they sole agency agreements or sole selling agreements.

When your Mum signed the agreement with EA2 did they not ask for a list of potential buyers that EA1 had introduced?

Hope you get this sorted out, sorry for the stress for your Mum

oceansize

Better Days - Thanks for your reply.

The contract with ES2 is a sole agency agreement.

These 2 quotes might help you understand:

Dear ES2,



The buyer was not introduced in your sole agency period....he was introduced during our sole agency period. Please can you show me where in your contract it states that you will charge a fee if someone has viewed the property prior to entering into a sole agency agreement with yourselves?



Regards



ES1

Then the reply.

Dear ES1

I am not prepared to enter in to any further dialogue with you over this. I have made my position perfectly clear from my first e-mail and my sales manager has made our position clear to our client.

Regards

ES2

googler

If Buyer A wants to buy your house now, he should approach EA2 and make an offer. EA2 is the only one with an active selling agreement for the property. EA1 doesn't have a contract with you at present.

A can't make an offer via EA1 as they don't currently have a selling agreement for the property. They have to make their offer to EA2 since EA2 has a current contract. Unless EA1s contract has a clause in it specifically stating they claim a right to fees in perpetuity for anyone they introduced whilst they had the contract in force...?

EA1 should introduce the buyer to EA2 and negotiate for a referral fee from them for bringing the buyer to them. You pay the full fee to EA2, and EA1 and EA2 thrash out how much EA2 will pay EA1

Your response to EA1 should be "Is this buyer ready to make an offer, or has he merely expressed further interest?" If the former, you should tell EA1 to take the buyer to EA2 as above. If the latter, sit tight and tell EA1 to get back in touch when the buyer is ready to offer.

Who's the 'our client' referred to in the EA2 reply? You or someone else?

Fire_Fox

As Better Days asked
"What do the contracts that your Mum has signed with the EA's actually say? ...... When your Mum signed the agreement with EA2 did they not ask for a list of potential buyers that EA1 had introduced?"

Snippets of conversations are unhelpful when they refer to a first e-mail that we have not seen!

john_white

Simply state to both agents that there will be no acceptance of an offer until they agree in writing who is due what. They can argue all they want but with no sale there is nothing to pay.

mrginge

Write to both agents saying that you will not pay fees to both and unless they come to a compromise you will not be able to proceed with that buyer. In addition you will be terminating your agreement with agent 2.

oceansize

Fire_Fox wrote: »

As Better Days asked
"What do the contracts that your Mum has signed with the EA's actually say? ...... When your Mum signed the agreement with EA2 did they not ask for a list of potential buyers that EA1 had introduced?"

Snippets of conversations are unhelpful when they refer to a first e-mail that we have not seen!

First email

Dear ES2,



Further to a conversation with (ES2 worker) in your office yesterday and leaving two messages for you to call me back which you failed to do so, I understand that you are looking to claim a fee from (mum) for a purchaser that we introduced to the above property during our sole agency agreement.



I can confirm that we ceased marketing the above property on 18th April 2012 and our purchaser viewed the property prior to this date. He has only recently sold his property and been in a position to proceed. On Friday 19th October he asked what had happened to (mum's house). I rang (mum) and asked if she was still looking to sell as I had someone who had previously seen the property show interest. I have since received an offer from my purchaser which is acceptable to (mum).



As per your contract with (mum), I see that you have agreed a sole agency agreement from 14th May 2012. You will charge a fee if at any time unconditional contracts for the sale of your 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'



I can confirm that our purchaser was introduced to the above property during OUR sole agency period and if you are still insistent on claiming a fee, can you please advise in writing on what grounds this will be under.



If we fail to hear from you 26th October, then we will assume that you will not be taking this matter any further and we will then instruct our purchaser to start proceeding with the purchase of the above property.



Regards

ES1

googler

EA1 can't accept an offer on the property because they've been dis-instructed. Their contract has been ended. The only agency who can accept an offer are the ones with a valid agency contract, and that's EA2.

If any agent without a contract could accept an offer on a seller's behalf, the house-selling market would be in anarchy. Seller lists his/her property with Agent A. Two weeks later, Agent B says they 'have an offer' for the seller.... It doesn't happen that way, because Agent A is the only one with a valid agency contract, and Agent B doesn't. Viewers don't enquire through Agent B, nor view via Agent B because the seller has no agreement with Agent B.

The only difference here is that EA1 HAD a valid contract before, but they don't now. The seller is out of contract with EA1 and has a contract with EA2.

What does the seller/OP do?

Write to BOTH agents, outlining that the only valid Estate Agency Contract that they have is with EA2, and that any offers should be submitted to EA2. As someone suggested above, insist that there will be NO sale unless EA1 and EA2 come to some agreeement on how EA2's fee is split between them.

Footnote - I don't see why EA2 should have their contract terminated. They're expecting a fee, and rightly so, as they're the only ones with a valid contract.

googler

The other strange issue with Buyer A coming back through EA1 is that;

He viewed last year. Now that the house is on the market with another agent, he's come back, hasn't contacted the current agent (who must have a sale board up, and an online listing, one would assume), and he not only has expressed further interest in the property, but has also MADE AN OFFER to EA1 .... but hasn't been back to view the house, and hasn't seen it since last year?

I know if I was coming back to a house that I'd viewed in 2011, the first thing I would do would be to go and view it again.

So my supplementary question to EA1 would be - "Why has the buyer made an offer without viewing the house again?" ...and if he wants to view, he has to do this through EA2, because..... anyone? Yes, you at the back there, speak up now;

"EA1 doesn't have a valid selling contract for the house at the moment."

oceansize

Thanks Googler,

I will write to them both.
The really frustrating thing is that the buyer really wants to get the deal done asap and has offered nearly the asking price.
My mum has only received 2 offers in over a year and the other one fell through. She just wants to sell the house asap as she has health problems and wants to move nearer my sister. It's turned into a bit of a nightmare, tbh.