Estate agents taking me to court?

googler

AnotherJoe wrote: »

There surely can't be a contract that says that you are tied in for 12 months and then after that if you don't wish to use them you still have to pay £300 to exit. If there is I doubt that would be acceptable to a court, IANAL but sounds like an unfair contact term to me.

Why would it be unfair?

eddddy

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Don't you mean before the contract period? There surely can't be a contract that says that you are tied in for 12 months and then after that if you don't wish to use them you still have to pay £300 to exit. If there is I doubt that would be acceptable to a court, IANAL but sounds like an unfair contact term to me.

No - that's not how EAs' contracts work.

You enter into a contract and the contract continues until either you cancel the contract or the property is sold.

But typically there is a minimum contract period - for example 12 weeks.

So you cannot cancel the contract during the first 12 weeks. But you can cancel after 12 weeks + 1 day, or after 15 weeks or after 250 weeks or whatever.

If an EA charges a cancellation fee, it will apply if you cancel the contract after 12 weeks + 1 day, or if you cancel after 250 weeks.

pinkshoes

googler wrote: »

Why would it be unfair?

Why wouldn't it be unfair?

The EA could just then get their £300 and not lift a finger to sell the property. A guaranteed £300 for every person on their books.

If they failed to sell within the fixed term, then that is their fault and not that of the seller.

It would be classified as an unfair term.

eddddy

pinkshoes wrote: »

It would be classified as an unfair term.

It may be morally dubious, sellers may be daft to agree to this term - but it is not an unfair term in the legal sense.

Contractually, you are paying the EA £300 to market your property. (Plus a bigger fee if they sell it.)


(I might pay the local newsagent £5 to advertise my bike on a postcard in their window. If my bike doesn't sell, I cannot claim that my agreement with the newsagent is unfair.)

However, I have never agreed to an EA contract with a cancellation fee. If the EA refuses to remove that term, I walk away.

AnotherJoe

Hmm I can see both sides of this, I'm so used to no sale no fee it didn't occur to me there could be a fee for leaving them after the contract period has ended.

The OP of course was foolish (sorry OP) to sign a contract with a 12 month term, you might think, if they have a 12 month term as normal that doesn't give me much confidence in their ability to sell, given most are 12 weeks. And also foolish not t have spotted the £300 fee to leave.

I'd probably point out to the agency that its a pity after 12 months they couldn't sell and still want £300 and will shortly be tweeting about your annoyance of these terms and that they are taking you to court.

Guest101

It may be seen as unfair, it may not.

Any decent agent would waive this as £300 is a lot less than a story in the local paper

eddddy

If nothing else, I hope this thread highlights how important it is to read and understand EA contracts thoroughly before agreeing to them.

There seem to be a lot of misconceptions about how they work.

Guest101

eddddy wrote: »

If nothing else, I hope this thread highlights how important it is to read and understand EA contracts thoroughly before agreeing to them.

There seem to be a lot of misconceptions about how they work.

Or all contracts really.

I mean there could be a number of arguments- once 12 months passed the contract is concluded for example. I'd need to see the terms and conditions to pass jusgment

googler

pinkshoes wrote: »

Why wouldn't it be unfair?

The EA could just then get their £300 and not lift a finger to sell the property. A guaranteed £300 for every person on their books.

In which case, they'd be in breach of their side of the contract.

However, the things which the EA has paid for, on behalf of the seller, which are only recoupable by means of such an exit/cancellation fee, are self-evident - printed schedules, a sale board at the property, Rightmove and other internet listings - and will be easily provable by audit trails and contracts with the third parties providing them.

pitbullpeebs

Thanks for the replies, It seems it's not a contract issue but the the ready to sell package that they are charging me for. I understand that I agreed to it in the 1st place but I didn't forsee a problem selling the house. Properties on my road are selling in days, they couldn't sell mine in 15 months.