Can a buyer buy the house without going through the estate agent?

RozJC

Hello,

Simple question really...

I am selling my home and before I put the house on the market with an estate agent, I had an offer from a family friend, but they were unable to go ahead with anything for about a month.

So I decided to put it on the market in the meantime and I got an offer that we accepted but ultimately fell through, so I intend to go back to the family friend and put the offer to her.

Now, here's the tricky bit...

The contract that I signed with the estate agent had a clause in there that they are to be the only estate agent that can market the house for a period of time and I believe I am still in that period of time.

Will my family friend need to go through the estate agent in order to purchase the house or will they be able to go around the estate agent without us getting penalised?

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for any answers in advance.

martin.cat

Did you make EA aware. My EA allowed us to name a possible buyer when we signed contract

davisc02

Hi,

We had a similar situation, we signed an estate agents contract, put house on the market, did some leaflets and posted through houses we would like to buy and turns out someone wanted to downsize to our and we move to theirs.
When I looked closely at my contract it basically said if I found a buyer myself in the contract term then the commission would still need to be paid, if after the contract term any potential buyers introduced by the agency would mean me still paying fees, however if I found my own buyers after the contract term no fees were applicable.
Have alook closely at your contract and it might say something similar, if its a family friend they might be open to waiting until the contract expires. I spoke to an estate agent friend and they said their agency would not bother to chase someone but I have also heard of others taking the sellers to court.

cloo

Interesting, we may be in this position as we have a neighbour who may be interested in buying. Haven't signed contract yet, but we'll check related clauses.

RozJC

Hello,

Thank you for your replies.

@martin.cat
I did mention that I did have an offer from before I put it up on the market, but I wasn't able to explicitly name them, if I'm understanding what you are saying.

@davisc02
Yeah, I'm slightly worried that might happen. I'll have to have a look and see what the timeframe was, but I believe that I'm half way through the term now.

sinizterguy

If it has been a certain period of time, you could sign a new contract for a renewed period with the EA, but in this contract have the clause removed where you have to pay them if you find your own buyer.

pinkshoes

Do you have any written evidence of this offer e.g. Emails, letter with date?

This would be enough proof that you found the buyer before you had a contract with them.

RozJC

@sinizterguy
I can ask them if they'll do this.

@pinkshoes
Sadly, I do not. Didn't think of getting this written down at the time.

pinkshoes

RozJC wrote: »

@sinizterguy
I can ask them if they'll do this.

@pinkshoes
Sadly, I do not. Didn't think of getting this written down at the time.

I suppose you could get them to write something like "further to our orevious offer that we made in <date>, we would now like to offer £x for your property..."

martin.cat

Yes you do need to name. I think at the minimum you would be liable for marketing fees and reasonable expenses

Yorkie1

pinkshoes wrote: »

Do you have any written evidence of this offer e.g. Emails, letter with date?

This would be enough proof that you found the buyer before you had a contract with them.

This will not be enough if the current contract with the EA says that the fees are payable irrespective of who found the buyer. Clearly, the family friend was not a proceedable buyer at the time of the initial offer and so it doesn't count.

OP, look at your contract again. If you need to end it, and then wait a certain period before selling to this family friend, then do so.