Sacking Estate Agent - Understanding the contract

kay_1

Hi all

I wonder if you can help. Hubby and I have decided to pull out of our sale (buyer hasn't yet put any money into property for survery or anything), sack our useless Estate Agents and give it a go via an Online Agent. This will save us 3.5k as our Estate Agents want almost 4k commission on our £150,000 house :shocked:

I have looked at our contract and it looks as though we have agreed to only market our property with them for a 12 week period. This ends on 30 December 2013. Just wanted to put some points from the contract down so someone who understands it can tell me whether we should definitely wait until after the Christmas period before approaching an online Agent.

- The Agent will be the only agent for the sale of the Property during the Agency Period

- The seller will be liable to pay the commission fee to the agent in each of the following circumstances:

- if unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged in the period during which the Countrywide Agency is in force, even if the Buyer was not found by the Agent but by another agent or by any other person, including the seller.
- if unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged after the expiry of the period during which the Countrywide Agency is in force but to a Buyer who was introduced to the seller during that period or with whom the agent had negotiations about the property during that period.

So does that mean we can't market it with an online agent until the 12 week period ends or can we market it with them just we can't exchange contracts if they sell it until our agency period is up with our current agents.

Any help would be much appreciated.

GRM

If you exchange before 30/12/13 it doesn't matter who you sell it to, you owe the agents their commission.

If you exchange after 30/12/13 with anyone the agent has ever spoken to, you owe the agents their commission. That includes the buyer mentioned in your first sentence.

kay_1

So I could market the property with an online agent now as long as exchange takes place after 30/12/13?

They've only spoken to our buyers as they made an offer on the property before it went 'live' on the market so I guess that only rules out our current buyers.

casperlarue

kay_1 wrote: »

- The Agent will be the only agent for the sale of the Property during the Agency Period

- The seller will be liable to pay the commission fee to the agent in each of the following circumstances:

- if unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged in the period during which the Countrywide Agency is in force, even if the Buyer was not found by the Agent but by another agent or by any other person, including the seller.
- if unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged after the expiry of the period during which the Countrywide Agency is in force but to a Buyer who was introduced to the seller during that period or with whom the agent had negotiations about the property during that period.

So does that mean we can't market it with an online agent until the 12 week period ends or can we market it with them just we can't exchange contracts if they sell it until our agency period is up with our current agents. That's how I read the clause, if you exchange with another buyer before 30 December you will have to pay comission to Countrywide.

Any help would be much appreciated.

EA is a bit on the pricey side, just to give you an idea my last property sale in 2010 had a fixed fee of £2k plus vat on a £160k asking price.

kay_1

The fee is the issue as well as their appalling service. Seeing as they got us a buyer before we even signed their contract we felt pressured into signing without really thinking about their fees.

GRM

kay_1 wrote: »

So I could market the property with an online agent now as long as exchange takes place after 30/12/13

Maybe. The line "The Agent will be the only agent for the sale of the Property during the Agency Period" is pretty clear, it wasn't put in the contract without reason.

kay_1

As it says 'for the sale of the property' and not 'for the marketing of the property' I am somewhat confused!

vectistim

kay_1 wrote: »

So I could market the property with an online agent now as long as exchange takes place after 30/12/13?

"if unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged in the period during which the Countrywide Agency is in force, even if the Buyer was not found by the Agent but by another agent or by any other person, including the seller. "

So if you put it on with another agent and they introduce a buyer in December and exchange contracts in March you'll still be liable to Countrywide.

OK, their fee is a lot, but to be fair you have a sale agreed within a month of going on the market. Is your main gripe that they've found a buyer quickly and so don't appear to have slogged their guts out for you? I'd rather have an agent who finds a buyer quickly than one who ends up doing a lot of work for no money over the next eighteen months.

kay_1

No my main gripe is their fees and also the fact that they do not return my calls and have not kept my buyer in the loop. We are having difficulty finding a suitable property to purchase and I have asked them to inform our buyers of this and to find out how long they are prepared to wait. They have not done this and keep avoiding my calls and not returning them. They also keep trying to pressure me into seeing their mortgage advisor and use their solicitors.

googler

kay_1 wrote: »

We are having difficulty finding a suitable property to purchase and I have asked them to inform our buyers of this and to find out how long they are prepared to wait.

So ... On the one hand you want to drop this buyer because they haven't yet arranged a survey, but on the other hand, you want them to wait because you haven't found an onward purchase?

Sounds to me like you want to have your cake and eat it.

Is the agency period end date an actual end date, or merely the expiry of a minimum agency period?

mischiefmaker

It would be unusual for a buyer to spend any money out on surveys etc until the chain is complete.