Cancelling Estate Agent Contract

eddddy

accidental_landlord wrote: »

It's perfectly valid IMO. I highly doubt any party could ever claim rights from a contract they effectively broke/terminate themselves - any clause that suggested it would be intrinsically unfair... See my post above, but if someone were to become a customer that was not worth the hassle yet stuck to the every single letter of a contract, it makes sense why an agent would want out........ Unless there is a worthwhile financial gain in perusing something a business won't.... Not exactly the moral high ground I'd agree :beer:

You're massively over thinking this (...or you have never read an EA's contract!).

The reality is, if you tell an EA that you won't allow any more viewings (or make viewings difficult) - the EA will just stop doing viewings.

But they won't terminate the contract.

They will sit around and do nothing, and if you sell via another EA they will claim their fee.

Why would they terminate the contract and lose the chance of a getting fee for doing no work?

accidental_landlord_2

eddddy wrote: »

You're massively over thinking this (...or you have never read an EA's contract!).

The reality is, if you tell an EA that you won't allow any more viewings (or make viewings difficult) - the EA will just stop doing viewings.

But they won't terminate the contract.

They will sit around and do nothing, and if you sell via another EA they will claim their fee.

Why would they terminate the contract and lose the chance of a getting fee for doing no work?

Yup, I've never actually read one of these contracts, or more importantly no one has seen this specific one, but I do understand contract law..... What I'm saying is that there can be nothing in the contract that FORCES him to sell his house against his wishes and providing that he honors his side of the contract to the letter there can be no come back on him.... Ultimately if he feels that strongly he can defer the sale of his house for the amount of years (ignoring potential unfair terms!) specified in the contract and in return for the estate agent playing silly !!!!!!s over the signature location there's nothing to stop him, even morals, from behaving in an equally twattish way. If the OP is constantly putting pressure on and the EA simply sits and does nothing they will be breaking their side of the contract unless it is unfairly balanced.... It's certainly not a case of signed the deal so pay the price...

eddddy

accidental_landlord wrote: »

Yup, I've never actually read one of these contracts,

OK - so what you need to do is read 5 or 10 or 20 different EA contracts. Then you'll understand how they work, and you can provide some helpful input.

accidental_landlord wrote: »

...or more importantly no one has seen this specific one...

Once you've read those 5, 10 or 20 different EA contracts, and read The Property Ombudsman's Code of Practice, and read some of the relevant legislation, I'm sure that you'll understand and agree with my comments.

accidental_landlord_2

eddddy wrote: »

OK - so what you need to do is read 5 or 10 or 20 different EA contracts. Then you'll understand how they work, and you can provide some helpful input.



Once you've read those 5, 10 or 20 different EA contracts, and read The Property Ombudsman's Code of Practice, and read some of the relevant legislation, I'm sure that you'll understand and agree with my comments.

This may come across as rude, but hold up a second and accept that law is more complex than the one directional aspect an estate agent may be taught.... For example, you're asking me to read the property ombudsman code of practice ( the !!!!!! the op is dealing with has actually broken it if what the op's said is true - yes, again I haven't read it, but ticking a t&c type box on a customer's behalf, without them seeing them, will be a no and will be mentioned in there)... Also as the title suggests it's CODE, relevant to one industry and only relevant in that sector if a company has signed up to be regulated (ie the company abides it, by not the client), clearly no law yet.... If there's proper relevant legislation quote it , or at least hint at an act....

eddddy

accidental_landlord wrote: »

This will come across as rude, but hold up a second and realise that law is more than the one directional view an estate agent like yourself may be taught.... For example you're asking me to read the property ombudsman code of practice... CODE, not !!!!ING law! If there's relevant legislation !!!!!! quote it!

Ummm... I'm not an estate agent.

But in the last 2 or 3 of years alone, I have instructed 6 different EAs in realtion to 4 different properties, and read every single word in the contracts of maybe 12 or 13 different EAs.

When required, I use their contracts, their mandatory code of practice and the law to pin them to the floor. As a result, I have never been ripped-off by an EA.

I post here to help others pin EAs to the floor, and to help others avoid being ripped-off by EAs.


Unfortunately, your comments/suggestions are so wide of the mark, the task of getting you onto the right track is just too big to address here. You need to do some research.

accidental_landlord_2

Also posting to help others Eddy, not here to just to take up a pointless argument with you.

Given your experience I'm sure you can see where I'm coming from regarding EA's assuming their word is gospel; despite in general their knowledge of the law being biased and pathetic... The truth of it is EAs have to operate by the code of conduct they signed up to, not the consumer and whatever the code of conduct says for an EA it is always superseded by either a law, sometimes an act, sometimes both and in many situations a ridiculous combination of the two....

Believe it or not I am not so far off the mark.

eddddy

accidental_landlord wrote: »

Also posting to help others Eddy, not here to just to take up a pointless argument with you.

Given your experience I'm sure you can see where I'm coming from regarding EA's assuming their word is gospel; despite in general their knowledge of the law being biased and pathetic... The truth of it is EAs have to operate by the code of conduct they signed up to, not the consumer and whatever the code of conduct says for an EA it is always superseded by either a law, sometimes an act, sometimes both and in many situations a ridiculous combination of the two....

Believe it or not I am not so far off the mark.

1) You admit that you have never read an EA contract, yet you try to give advice about them

2) You edit your post after I have replied to it, to try to hide your errors

3) You haven't read the thread properly - you are confusing a post by mlp123 with a post by suereid410

4) Your advice is based on 'guessing' - and your guesses are incorrect


Edit to add...

I see that somebody else is pulling you up for giving ill-informed advice in another thread as well: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/73380149#Comment_73380149

chappers

The thing is there are crap estate agents out there, but the bottom line is they know their contracts and will always use them as their fall back, as a client all you can do is read them understand them and keep within them.

The problem is that sometimes people don't, the OP is a classic example of this. yes the box was pre- ticked which is shady, but the bottom line is don't sign the contract until you know what that tick signifies.
As to the work to rule principal of not accepting viewings etc how does that help if you actually want to sell your house.
EAs contracts are pretty basic things really and it's well established that there will be a contract period, a notice period and a clause covering pre-introduced buyers. Stick to those and you can't really go far wrong, most EAs will negotiate on timeframes for contract length and notice to get your business, but will quite rightly hold onto the introduced buyer rules if you sell to a pre-introduced buyer.

accidental_landlord_2

eddddy wrote: »

1) You admit that you have never read an EA contract, yet you try to give advice about them

2) You edit your post after I have replied to it, to try to hide your errors

3) You haven't read the thread properly - you are confusing a post by mlp123 with a post by suereid410

4) Your advice is based on 'guessing' - and your guesses are incorrect


Edit to add...

I see that somebody else is pulling you up for giving ill-informed advice in another thread as well: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/73380149#Comment_73380149

1) Without seeing THE specific contract we're all just giving advice on a hypothetical situation trying to hopefully point op in the right direction....
2) You can always quote someone to stop any editing...
3) I dont care, this isnt my job.
4) Everyone's is guessing without what? the specific contract... yet you're telling me to read what?
5) You mentioned ''relevant legislation'' share it with us?????????????:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
You seemed to know so much about 'legislation' till someone called you on it:beer:

eddddy

You're a bit of a glutton for punishment, so here goes...

accidental_landlord wrote: »

1) Without seeing THE specific contract we're all just giving advice on a hypothetical situation trying to hopefully point op in the right direction....

You've never read an EA contract, you've never read the legislation, you don't even know what the relevant legislation is called - so how do you hope to steer anyone in the right direction?

As an analogy - imagine somebody who has never seen a helicopter trying to give advice on how to fly a helicopter.

accidental_landlord wrote: »

2) You can always quote someone to stop any editing...
3) I dont care, this isnt my job.

Which is what makes your posts unhelpful to people.

accidental_landlord wrote: »

4) Everyone's is guessing without what? the specific contract... yet you're telling me to read what?

This comment is based on your lack of knowledge of EA contracts, the relevant legislation etc. (See Chappers post above.)

accidental_landlord wrote: »

1)
5) You mentioned ''relevant legislation'' share it with us?????????????:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
You seemed to know so much about 'legislation' till someone called you on it:beer:

The legislation you need to read is The Estate Agents Act 1979. Here's a link: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/38/contents

I think you may have now read The Property Ombudsman's Code of Practice from my previous link.

(But I'm not sure if you realise that, by law, EAs must join redress schemes like the TPO. So they have no choice about abiding by their rules.)



Edit to add...

If you are genuinely interested in this topic... other stuff that's relevant to this thread includes:

Consumer Protection Act 2015 : http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/contents/enacted (e.g. regarding cooling-off periods)

The 'famous' Foxtons case : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/lawreports/1935750/FOXTONS-LTD-v-BICKNELL-and-ANR.html (regarding effective introductions)

The OFT Estate Agency Guide: http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/The_estate_agency_guide_jan06.pdf


And here are some random examples of EAs' contracts (these tend to be smaller EAs - the big guys don't publish their contracts on the web):

http://www.loftstyleproperties.com/media/1000/1000/d99c7d27-908e-4035-a561-fe9c4ca58848.pdf

http://www.somervillesestateagents.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Somervilles-TCs.pdf

https://www.hatched.co.uk/static/pdf/hatched-terms-conditions-sales.pdf?10


And once you're familiar with that lot, and you've had some real dealings with EAs, you'll be in great shape to help people.