Withdrawal fee's removing property from market?

eddddy

googler wrote: »

...

How does the advertising cost of putting your property in the paper, plus the printing costs of the schedules, plus (if applicable) installation cost of sale board, plus the agent's time in doing the groundwork for these, and any other time the agent has spent on you and your property, equate to nothing at all?

Do you see the above as a trivial expense that the agent should write off, just because you changed your mind, and didn't actually consider the full content of the contract you signed?
....

Hi googler

To me EA's who charge withdrawal fees sound a bit like they are saying:

"If you instruct me, in my professional opinion I can sell your property for £x within the agreed contact period. However, if I am wrong and I can't sell it, you will have to pay me £750."

I guess it's fine if some EAs want to share the financial risks with the vendor by charging withdrawal fees - but I would expect those EA's sales commission to be lower, as they are taking less risk.

And based on comments in this forum, it sounds like some EA's could do a slightly better job of proactively explaining their withdrawal fees, instead of just leaving their customers to find details in the contracts.

hcb42

clairewithgoldenhair wrote: »

ps) also in scotland if you keep house on market and get an offer at asking price or more you have to sell, you cannot back out. :-(

definitely not true, and also not always the case that buyers cannot pull out either. I had a buyer pull out after we had gone to sealed bids in Scotland, nothing we could do about it.

googler

eddddy wrote: »

Hi googler

To me EA's who charge withdrawal fees sound a bit like they are saying:

"If you instruct me, in my professional opinion I can sell your property for £x within the agreed contact period. However, if I am wrong and I can't sell it, you will have to pay me £750."

I guess it's fine if some EAs want to share the financial risks with the vendor by charging withdrawal fees - but I would expect those EA's sales commission to be lower, as they are taking less risk.

...which could equally well be phrased as;

"If you instruct me, in my professional opinion, all the available evidence (of sold prices, properties that were marketed in the area but didn't sell, those that are on the market at the moment) that I've shown you suggests that it should sell for around £X.

If you'd like me to market and sell your property, my fee, when it sells, and only when it sells, will be £Y. If, for any reason, you remove it from the market prior to a sale being achieved (thus denying me the possibility of recouping my expenses from the final sale fee), I'll charge a cancellation/withdrawal fee of £Z to cover the outgoing costs that I'll incur in the time between taking your property on, and you cancelling it. If I choose to cancel the agreement, for whatever reason, there won't be any cancellation fee payable."

...but in the OP's case, it's not a case of the EA being wrong and not being able to sell it - the OP is withdrawing it from the market and removing any possibility of the EA selling it - i.e. she's cancelling it. The EA is charging the fee because the OP is taking away any possibility of them selling it.

googler

eddddy wrote: »

And based on comments in this forum, it sounds like some EA's could do a slightly better job of proactively explaining their withdrawal fees, instead of just leaving their customers to find details in the contracts.

I find the opposite - it sounds like more people should read the contracts that they sign. As the OP admits;

"Of course when I signed the contract I intended to sell my house and not withdraw it so overlooked that issue"

eddddy

googler wrote: »

...but in the OP's case, it's not a case of the EA being wrong and not being able to sell it - the OP is withdrawing it from the market and removing any possibility of the EA selling it - i.e. she's cancelling it. The EA is charging the fee because the OP is taking away any possibility of them selling it.

Not really a valid argument .... the OP's property has been on the market for 10 months - it's almost certainly outside the min contract period. Any reasonable person would say that the EA has failed.


And you seem to be agreeing with me that it would be great if EA's were clearer with their clients, and clearly said:

googler wrote: »

if, for any reason, you remove it from the market prior to a sale being achieved (thus denying me the possibility of recouping my expenses from the final sale fee), I'll charge a cancellation/withdrawal fee of £Z to cover the outgoing costs

googler

eddddy wrote: »

Not really a valid argument .... the OP's property has been on the market for 10 months - it's almost certainly outside the min contract period. Any reasonable person would say that the EA has failed.

Any reasonable person would say - look at the state of the country, lok at the state of the market, look at the financial situation, where many struggle to find mortgages.

Fire_Fox

googler wrote: »

Seriously - your solution is for the OP to tell bare-faced lies?

Yup! They aren't going to mislead anyone into spending money and won't form part of a contract.