Try to dodge EA fees - consequences?

lynzpower

prutter wrote: »

By checking at the land registry once the property has been sold.
As far as I'm aware this does happen.....

where I worked it happened as a matter of routine.

there were about 4 cases pending from just one office.

I also understand that the court rate of interest can be applied and thats 8%

Romani_Ite_Domum

Thanks for all your feedback. I am a little surprised that the penalties for trying this on arn't a litttle higher than 8% interest if they find you.

As much as my experience of EAs has not been that good. If they have sold your house in the end then deciding not to pay is not right.

I know he is bascially stuck on a few grand, however he has dropped price over the years and the offer is a low one. Everyone has their limits.
if there is a Mexican stand off on price I will suggest he talks to the agent to get the fees down from 2% to complete the sale. Maybe just enough.

MarkyMarkD

The effort required for an EA to find out who's bought a property which they have spent lots of effort marketing is trivial compared to the amount of the fee they are being defrauded of. As others have posted, they WILL get found out. It's ridiculous to "keep the money set aside just in case" - pay the damned bill and stop being so dishonest.

If he's so desperate to sell, and it's taken so long, doesn't he realise the great thing the EA has done in getting him a buyer at all, albeit a dodgy one.