House buyer pulls out. A blessing in disguise??

davenpearsall

We've been in the process of selling my mums house for the past 3/4 months.

Mum has been there for 38 yrs and the whole process has been very frightening and stressful for her. Today I received a call saying that the buyer has pulled out of the sale. No surveys have been done as yet but paperwork has been sent to solicitors etc.

Having told mum this she is now thinking of taking it off the market to take stock. Feel if she really wants to move or leave it a while etc.

My question is, what fees are we still liable for? The estate agents agreed on a fixed fee of £2300 for the sale.

If mum does decide to pull out are we liable to the full amount?

cattie

You would need to read the contract that your mother would have signed with the ea.

Normally if you pull out of a sale then you pay no fees, but different ea's have different selling practices/contracts so reading this should be your 1st port of call.

eddddy

You need to read the EA's contract to see what fees are payable.

Normally (hopefully), it would be:

a) "No sale, No fee". There's been no sale so no fee is payable

Or...

b) "Ready, willing and able buyer" The buyer is not ready and willing (they have withdrawn), so again no fee should be payable.


But... you need to check for a 'withdrawal fee', as your mother is now withdrawing the property from the market.

(Although, I've also seen especially harsh EA contracts where a big chunk of the fee becomes due as soon as solicitors are instructed. But I can't understand why people agree to those.)

davenpearsall

Thankks for the information! I'll let her know to go through the contract before jumping into any decision.

Thanks again.