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Sale fallen through - conveyancer charging me fees!
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By letter of contract, yes I probably do have to stump up.
Ooookaaay...My defence is that the buyer's rep and mine are part of the same conveyancing arm and it's the slacking from the buyer's rep that has partly led to this outcome.
Lovely, an' all. But... nope.
If the buyer decided to pull out rather than simply use a different conveyancer, then the buyer pulled out. As they are entitled to do, right up until exchange. And, anyway, even if it was the same firm, there are chinese walls internally so they act as two separate firms to avoid conflicts of interest.0 -
The commission an EA would earn on a conveyancing referral would be about £50 nothing like what they would earn from the completion of a sale. I can't imagine any agent wanted to deliberately sabotage a sale for £50. Not mention if affects their stats and pipeline it just doesn't make sense.0
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I instructed an estate agent to sell my property, on the basis they also offered their conveyancing service free of charge. They found a buyer and all was proceeding, albeit far slower than I would have expected. Unfortunately, the buyer pulled out (according to the estate agent, literally a few hours between asking for a Completion date and deciding not to proceed!).
Foolishly, I didn't take out the abortive fee cover at the time of instruction. So as a result, as we were close to exchange the conveyancers are now charging me for all fees incurred.
I am absolutely livid! :mad: The conveyancers were also acting for the buyer (albeit with a different representative to mine). The buyer's conveyancer dawdled for over 2½ weeks to complete searches on what is only a 1st floor flat before getting back to my rep. If not for that, the exchange could have been wrapped up before the buyer pulled out.
Do I have any recourse of action here, or has the conveyancer got me over a barrel and I'm forced to pay the fees?
You don't know that. Just as likely that the buyer pulled out at the moment a final decision was needed on completion and may have happened weeks ago if everything was ready then. You just don't know.I'm a Forum Ambassador on the housing, mortgages & student money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.0 -
Lovely, an' all. But... nope.
If the buyer decided to pull out rather than simply use a different conveyancer, then the buyer pulled out. As they are entitled to do, right up until exchange. And, anyway, even if it was the same firm, there are chinese walls internally so they act as two separate firms to avoid conflicts of interest.
So basically, if I wrote to them claiming the sale could have completed if the buyer's rep had done her job quicker and that charging me for their lack of urgency is unethical, they would laugh me off the park?
And if I took the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, it would likewise end in failure?0 -
You have absolutely no way to know if it's true or not that the sale would have progressed.So basically, if I wrote to them claiming the sale could have completed if the buyer's rep had done her job quicker and that charging me for their lack of urgency is unethical, they would laugh me off the park?
You are not being charged for their lack of urgency. You are being charged for the work they did on your sale before your buyer pulled out.0 -
The EA gets a referral fee from the conveyancer.
It appears that the OP is paying the conveyancer's full fee, so presumably the EA get's their full referral fee.
i.e. It's quite likely that around £400 of the fee the OP has to pay goes straight into the EA's pocket.
Edit to add...
If it were me, I would directly ask the conveyancer how much of my payment following aborting was going back to the EA.
£400 :eek:
I paid less than that in total including vat for conveyancing fees when I sold last year.Boatdweller wrote: »The commission an EA would earn on a conveyancing referral would be about £50 nothing like what they would earn from the completion of a sale. I can't imagine any agent wanted to deliberately sabotage a sale for £50. Not mention if affects their stats and pipeline it just doesn't make sense.
Exactly!0 -
Boatdweller wrote: »The commission an EA would earn on a conveyancing referral would be about £50 nothing like what they would earn from the completion of a sale. I can't imagine any agent wanted to deliberately sabotage a sale for £50. Not mention if affects their stats and pipeline it just doesn't make sense.
Have you actually seen a contract where a referral fee of £50 is mentioned - or did you just make that figure up?
The last example I saw was total legal fee for selling of £650 of which a referral fee of £450 goes to the EA.
So an EA's thoughts... "I've got an offer from a flaky buyer - I can advise the seller not to accept it because I think the buyer is a dodgy chancer, or I can advise the seller to accept it - so at least I get £400."0 -
You have absolutely no way to know if it's true or not that the sale would have progressed.
Well assuming the buyer was ready to exchange up until the date he pulled out, going from timescales the sale could have completed a week before if the buyer's rep had pulled her finger out. All I can do is write a letter of complaint and see what happens.
Just a thought... am I within my rights to ask the conveyancer to forward me the actual e-mail the buyer sent his rep confirming he was pulling out? The EA forwarded me the content of that e-mail, but without the date stamp above. I'm just suspicious that the buyer may have pulled out sooner than the conveyancer is letting on!0 -
So basically, if I wrote to them claiming the sale could have completed if the buyer's rep had done her job quicker and that charging me for their lack of urgency is unethical, they would laugh me off the park?
And if I took the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, it would likewise end in failure?
Stop wasting your time.
You agreed to pay for a service and now you're just looking for a way out of paying.
No-one works for free.0
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