New estate agent and old estate agent who gets the fee?

pippin06

Hi I'll try and keep this short, any help gratefully received thanks.


We were on with estate agent X who managed to get an offer which we did not accept from Mr A. We said we needed more and he said he couldn't give more and X failed to get a higher offer from Mr A.


Since then we changed to agent Y who whilst speaking with Mr A about other properties found out the story about the low offer on ours and after many negotiations manages to get Mr A to increase his offer to an amount we are happy with.


Now Mr A has withdrawn his original offer from agent X and is now speaking to agent Y and agent Y would like to bring Mr A for another viewing and make the offer formal.


We do not want to deal with agent X, we have found them incredibly unprofessional in many instances and I really feel that agent Y has done the hard work getting the acceptable offer. Mr A has also intimated he doesn't want to deal with X either by withdrawing his offer from them and speaking solely with our new agent now.


My question is what do we do? I want to sell my house and I want to sell it through agent Y and never speak with agent X again! But are we allowed/able to do this since originally they came round under agent X although any offer we accept will be arranged and negotiated by agent Y. Does this constitute as a cause of sale rather than the viewing with X?


I am aware I haven't made this short as I said I would so double thanks to anyone who reads and is able to reply.

100saving

agent Y gets the money. agent X did not do a good jub so you should say you are changing EA. he does not need to know about the buyer X.

pmlindyloo

This all depends on the type of contract you had with agent x. What kind of contract was it? Did you formally end this contract?

Get out the contract with agent x and see what it says.

pippin06

I should probably add our contract with X ended 5 days before our contract with Y started and Y did not have any conversations with Mr A until a few days later when he suggested our house to him as it fits his needs.


We changed agents anyway and never though Mr A would come back as X told us they couldn't get a better offer from him.

verulamium

Fair enough, but depending on what's written in your original contract with Agent X you may find you owe them commission money should the sale go ahead with the potential buyer.

Check your contract.

pippin06

I have read the contract - it says they get the fee if we complete with someone they introduced but it doesn't give a full explanation of the word "introduced". The whole contract covers one side of A4 in big writing!! I understand (from a very lay person point of view) there is a difference between introducing someone to a house i.e. a viewing, and introducing someone to a sale.

theartfullodger

Couple of years ago I was at some property seminar with a specialist barrister speaking: She said she was aware of no cases where an agent had taken vendor to court winning in commission in such circumstances.

Depending on your resilience financially & emotionally, but I'd simply ignore 1st agent after initial letter declining their kind request.

Cheers!

pippin06

yes we formally ended our contract and saw out the notice period. I read the contract before signing it. It's just now I have conflicting information about what constitutes as an effect of sale so was hoping someone not involved could clarify this for me.

pinkteapot

Tell agent Y now that the guy previously viewed and offered through the other agent. Agent Y shouldn't be touching him with a barge-pole.

Most EA contracts are such that whichever EA first introduced that buyer to you will get the commission. Introducing can just mean a viewing.

My mum bought a house which had changed agent. She viewed with the first agent but didn't offer. By the time she wanted to offer, it was on with a new EA. She phoned the new EA and explained that she'd previously viewed. They told her to call old EA, which she did, as old EA would be the one who'd get the commission.

New EA might try and pinch it, but your contract with agent X is likely to give them an entitlement to commission if you sell to Mr A....

pippin06

Does anyone know the name of a regulatory body that would cover this? I could maybe contact them.


My new agent Y is concerned X may try and bully me (a very kind but unfounded concern) I am happy to argue the toss but want to know I'm in the right first!!

pippin06

pinkteapot wrote: »

Tell agent Y now that the guy previously viewed and offered through the other agent. Agent Y shouldn't be touching him with a barge-pole.

Most EA contracts are such that whichever EA first introduced that buyer to you will get the commission. Introducing can just mean a viewing.

My mum bought a house which had changed agent. She viewed with the first agent but didn't offer. By the time she wanted to offer, it was on with a new EA. She phoned the new EA and explained that she'd previously viewed. They told her to call old EA, which she did, as old EA would be the one who'd get the commission.

New EA might try and pinch it, but your contract with agent X is likely to give them an entitlement to commission if you sell to Mr A....

That's interesting as we did the same thing while viewing places and the new agent said come with us its ours now! (neither agent is involved with my OP)