Estate Agents contracts

toffee'n'tom

My business partner and I have a new house for sale through an estate agent. (This is the 6th house) Some time ago, following a disagreement between the two of us
he instructed the agent and agreed a 1.5% fee. (I'd instructed an agency previously with a .75% fee!) A prospective purchaser viewed the property, introduced through his agency, and we agreed a purchase price which included a part ex for their property. We found out that the agency were charging our buyers 1% to sell their property. He then went completely nuts with the agents and, because they wouldn't reduce our fee to 1% finally emailed them to end our contract with them. He then phoned the buyers, told them we were having issues with the agents but that the house sale was still on. I believe we have heard nothing further from the agents although communication between myself and my partner is not good. He point blank refuses to discuss it.

I don't have a copy of the agents contract and I'm loathe to contact them for fear of making the situation between my business partner and myself worse. He has already threatened me not to contact them.

My view, without having a copy of the contract, is that we cannot simply carry on with the sale to the purchasers without paying the agents fee.

I'm guessing that if we don't do this we could be liable to face a county court order and end up paying more that the £1000 extra the .5% would cost us.

He may be hoping that the agents come back to us and reduce our fee to 1% but I don't think that will be the case as they quite rightly pointed out that he brings this issue up every time they make a sale for us. They have achieved the full asking price for the property.

Can anyone advise where we stand on this please. Will we have to pay the agent's fees if we sell to this buyer after ending our contract with them.

thanks

G_M

Without seeing the contract it is impossible to be sure.

However it is likely the agent will be entitled to claim their fee sinc they 'introduced' the buyer.

Even if the sale does not complete eg if you pull out, they may be entitled for having 'introduced a willing and able buyer', but you need to read the contract.

emailed them to end our contract with them

It is unlikely this would be legally valid (but need to read the contract!). In most cases

a) a minmum contract period is specified which may not have passed (4 weeks? 8? 16? Read thecontract)

b) a notice period is also needed ie 2 weeks, 4 weeks, or even 10 weeks

c) even after the contract is ended (properly), the agent is normally still entitled to their fee if you later sell to a buyer they introduced during the contract period, though often with a 6 month time limit.