Estate Agent - can I reduce their fee due to poor performance?

shred_Betty

My property was sold subject to contract in July before reaching the market. It has been a long and arduous process to get to today whereby I am approaching exchange/completion.
Basically, it's been a tricky sale for numerous reasons and has taken a significantly long time to come to a conclusion for various reasons.
My buyer was threatening to withdraw from the sale at the last minute therefore jeopardising my onward purchase. They needed careful handling.
I have been the person in direct contact with my buyers, in fact, most parties in the chain in order to keep the sale progressing. My buyer contacts me, not my agent, I'm the one that gives them updates, calms them down and has been the one negotiating with all parties to what will hopefully be a successful completion next week.
For the last few weeks, my agent, whom I'm paying to handle my buyer, has not done so.
Can I bill the agency for my time and therefore reduce they're final fee?

googler

Presumably you have a written contract with the agent? What does that say about the circumstances in which the agent's fee is payable?

[Deleted User]

You have two choices. You can put your concerns in writing and set out the reduction in fees you feel is reasonable, see what they say and negotiate from there.

Alternatively you can just ditch them, tell them you no longer require their services as they are no longer doing anything and will only pay them for what they have done so far. Again, see what they say and negotiate.

Thrugelmir

From your post it's unclear what the EA did wrong. Or where they failed to perform. The key point is that the EA found you a buyer.

ging84

i'm not sure how it's the agents fault that the buyer is contacting you, if you don't want to deal with them then surely you could have bounced them back to the agent

QTPie

From experience the EA normally "sells" your house and most of the rest/handling is done through solicitors.

What exactly did the EA do wrong? Could it be a problem with your solicitor instead?

pawpurrs

Sorry but a very important part of a good agent is progressing a sale, if they havent been doing that effectivley, then yes i would ask for a reduction, i have got one in the past, when unhappy with service levels. A soliceter job is to do the legal stuff, not chase chains.

kingstreet

If the EA contract stipulation is to "find a ready, willing and able purchaser", it's going to be difficult to argue they have failed to honour their side of the contract. What does the contract actually say?

Once a sale is agreed, there's little the agent can do if there are legal issues.

If you have raised your concerns during the progress of the sale and given the agent an opportunity to rectify what you think it was doing wrong, you should now be able to return to that issue and tell them you still feel they did not meet your expectations. They may offer an ex-gratia, or inconvenience reduction, as a result.

If you have said nothing, reached completion and now think they do not deserve their fee, I suspect you'll end up being sued.

moneyistooshorttomention

Oh if only it were possible to reduce firms fees for poor performance....there are a lot that would owe me and not just estate agents.

If you DO find a way, then I'm sure a lot of us would like to know it...

However, I do know that my own estate agent (recently used for selling my last house) had a specific person designated to "chase chains". Their job is specifically to ensure that the chains keep going smoothly. Don't know if this is something all EA's have.

ash28

shred_Betty wrote: »

My property was sold subject to contract in July before reaching the market. It has been a long and arduous process to get to today whereby I am approaching exchange/completion.
Basically, it's been a tricky sale for numerous reasons and has taken a significantly long time to come to a conclusion for various reasons.
My buyer was threatening to withdraw from the sale at the last minute therefore jeopardising my onward purchase. They needed careful handling.
I have been the person in direct contact with my buyers, in fact, most parties in the chain in order to keep the sale progressing. My buyer contacts me, not my agent, I'm the one that gives them updates, calms them down and has been the one negotiating with all parties to what will hopefully be a successful completion next week.
For the last few weeks, my agent, whom I'm paying to handle my buyer, has not done so.
Can I bill the agency for my time and therefore reduce they're final fee?

Why did your buyer contact you and not the EA? Who gave them your contact details?

Why didn't you tell them to deal with the EA?

We once were in direct contact with a vendor.....a mutual decision taken by us and them.....and never again. It was an absolute pain. It made a stressful situation much worse. They rang us constantly......if we hadn't really wanted the house I would have told them to foxtrot oscar.

Gwhiz

ash28 wrote: »

Why did your buyer contact you and not the EA? Who gave them your contact details?

Why didn't you tell them to deal with the EA?

We once were in direct contact with a vendor.....a mutual decision taken by us and them.....and never again. It was an absolute pain. It made a stressful situation much worse. They rang us constantly......if we hadn't really wanted the house I would have told them to foxtrot oscar.

This is the question I would also ask. OP - did you give the buyers your number because you felt it would help the sale?

I have done this on a few occasions - sometimes it's a pain but other times it can make the deal. Some buyers, for whatever reason, just don't want to talk to the agent.

In selling, as in life, it takes all sorts.