Buying from landlord

codemaster_2

Hi


I am a first time buyer and have been renting my Landlords apartment for several years, and now wish to buy it. We have agreed an offer, but one thing he wants to look into is whether or not the Letting Agency will have a right to commission if he sells to me? Do we legally need to inform them or could the Letting Agency or at least if we do, could in theory they have a clause in the Tenancy Agreement to retrieve commission if a sale of the property made to me the tenant or is that an unreasonable clause or not normally the case?


Thanks in advance.

AdrianC

It would be entirely reasonable, and would be explicitly contained in the terms and conditions of the contract he has with the agency, so he should not need to ask them.

G_M

YOU don't need to tell the agency anything. It is a matter for your landlord.

It is common for letting contracts to have such a clause, and it's a perfectly valid clause. Just like with estate agents, the letting agent has introduced a buyer to the seller, albeit in a different way.

The landlord could ignore this, and hope the agency does not find out, but as sales are a matter of public knwledge, recorded at the Land registry, and as agencies are in business to make money so keep their eyes open, your landlord would probobly receive a bill shortly after selling to you whether he informed them or not.

tacticalbanjo

I bought from my landlord last year and my LL was initially told by the agents that she would have to pay a fee to them for the introduction because it was written into the contract between my LL and the LA.

I'd read some interesting stuff about OFT vs Foxtons on exactly this issue which I sent to my landlord to persuade her to fight the letting agent. The LL was unsure but I found that the letting agent were a member of The Property Ombudsman. The TPO has a clause in its code of practice which said that letting agents must not charge a fee for LLs selling to tenants unless they had a separate sales agreement. The letting agents backed down after we sent them a link to the code of practice with the number of the clause and the exact wording of clause (to avoid any doubt!) and we never heard any more about it. :money::money::money:

booksurr

tacticalbanjo wrote: »

we sent them a link to the code of practice with the number of the clause and the exact wording of clause (to avoid any doubt!) and we never heard any more about it. :money::money::money:

then it would help all on here if you tell us the link

as a newbie you will not be able to post a functional link so just put it in with a space in it, for example: www. moneysavingexpert.com

G_M

https://www.tpos.co.uk/images/documents/rules-codes-obligations/residential-letting-agents/TPOE22-3_Code_of_Practice_Residential_Lettings_Agents_A4-_Effective_1_Oct_2015.pdf

Clause 5, bullet point 4

• Not require payment of a commission in circumstances
where the tenant agrees to purchase the property unless
this is subject to a separate sales agreement.

Of course this only applies if the agent is signed up to TPO.

tacticalbanjo

Sorry, I couldn't find the email I'd sent - it was around 18 months ago. And from G_M's post it looks like there is an updated version of the document anyway. Thanks for finding that G_M!

G_M

tacticalbanjo wrote: »

Sorry, I couldn't find the email I'd sent - it was around 18 months ago. And from G_M's post it looks like there is an updated version of the document anyway. Thanks for finding that G_M!

I hate the verb 'to google' so let's just say I binged it!