not paying 2 est agt fees-what can they do?

station_2

Hi,

I switched Estate Agents as one was hopeless. Now I'm stuck with paying 2 Est Agts fees. Don't feel I should.

So here's my question - what can they do to recover the money from me - it's about £2500?

Thanks

smreynard

I'm an estate Agent and in our area if you go multi-agency then you would only pay whichever agent sold the house and not the other one. If the first one was no good why didn't you just switch to a different one? You need to read your agency agreements carefully, you should only have to pay the one who sold it.

silvercar

Tell the estate agents to sort it out between them and you are not exchanging contracts until they agree who introduced the buyer. If you don't sell neither of them get a penny so they need to come to an agreement. Warn your solicitor, he will probably ask you who introduced the buyer and write a sharp note to one/ both of them.

Optimist

Sounds like you signed a Sole Selling Rights contract with the first agent if so then you have agreed to pay them even if another agent introduces your buyer this is legal and within the terms of the [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Estate Agents Act 1979. Ask your solicitor
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station_2

no 1 EA had a buyer & we accepted his offer. Nothing happened for months. So we decided to change EA as wasn't getting any feedback. During the switching of EAs, no 1 EA said the buyer was willing to put down a non refundable deposit into his sols on £5000. We told No 2 EA of this. Again nothing happened.
Now after 1 yr, this buyer comes to no 2 EA & makes us an offer.

No 1 EA contract is open ended sayingthat if he introduced a buyer than he gets his money. No 2 EA says they are in NAEA & their contract/code of conduit says its max. 6 months.

We want to pay No2 EA but not no 1 as he didn't sell it

My sister lives in Oz & I live in EU - will the Small Claims court be valid as we both cannot attend as not in UK?

Thanks for all your replies.

going2die_rich

Just don't tell EA 1 that you are selling to their buying. Explain to the buyer and they'd agree that it's the second estate agent that deserves the commission not the first since it's a year on. As long as nothings mentioned to the first EA how would they even know who bought it?

reformedEffortMaker_2

not being funny or nothing station, but have i missed something?

why would a buyer muck around FOR A YEAR and then place another offer with another agent? if I were you I would be more concerned about whether this buyer is actually going to see things through to the end....

gibby

we had a similar thing with a property we bought, local EA messed the seller about. he took it off the market & we found out he was selling it

don't know how they found out but they did and charged him the full money & he paid.

as its in the contract you dont ahve much choice.

but you can contest it in the courts if you prepare a report of all the things they did wrong & the hassle they caused

counter claim for the same amount for your wasted time etc

I would advise that when dealing with EA, always haggle on the price as they will accept alot less & never sign the standard contract that makes em exclusive & get a copy immediately

last one we used wanted £1500 & we got em down to £900 with no exclusivity

G

Snow_Dog

Send them a letter saying neither of them will get anything as you will simply pull the property and not sell unless they come to an agreement between them that they are happy with eg 50/50, or 25/75. That way they both get dosh for doing what most EAs seem to do which is fanny about being useless.

If they agree between themselves, then get it in writing and you're sorted, no courts, 1 set of fees.