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Estate agent contract - cooling off/walking away
TF03
Posts: 96 Forumite
Hi everyone,
After some advice.
We instructed our local estate agent on the 14th April to sell our property. We signed the contract at their office.
However in the time since the following has happened:
This in our opinion is utter nonsense as if we wanted to do the viewings ourselves we would have used purplebricks or similar! This is also the first sales person I've heard actually say, we may struggle to sell it (from the boss of all people!).
We are not impressed and initially was going to request a reduction in their fees if they want us to do viewings and the mistakes they have already made. But now we may consider cancelling instead if we can.
Our contract that we signed doesn't mention anything about a cooling off period but am I right in saying it's 14 days? And is that for contracts signed at home or in the EA office?
They have listed our property and put a board up already but at no point (especially in writing) did we state we wanted them to start this within the 14 days.They just did it. As I said, we were expecting a draft copy of the ad to check etc at which point we may have given them permission to start but that never happened.
If it helps us possibly, then where we have signed the contract then there is nothing written in the Proof of ID box. In case we have to through technicalities at them (if that would even help?).
If we do get a 14 day cooling off period, then the cut off for that is this coming Saturday.
Thanks
TF
After some advice.
We instructed our local estate agent on the 14th April to sell our property. We signed the contract at their office.
However in the time since the following has happened:
-
Despite them saying they would and the contract stating it, they never sent us a draft of our advertisement. It just went live 6 days after signing the contract and it had numerous mistakes, including the location and details of the leasehold.
-
Invited someone to view the property who wanted to buy to let, when we had instructed them that this was not possible due to the lease, yet still carried out the viewing and let them offer on the property.
-
We received a call today from the owner/boss asking that due to staff shortages/them being too busy, can we conduct the viewings instead otherwise they would only be able to show people around on Saturdays. (we can to a degree if it's a one off, as I'm sure anyone trying to sell would, but we both work full time hence why we went with an EA) He also stated that there are a lot of properties on the market at the moment and things aren't selling.
This in our opinion is utter nonsense as if we wanted to do the viewings ourselves we would have used purplebricks or similar! This is also the first sales person I've heard actually say, we may struggle to sell it (from the boss of all people!).
We are not impressed and initially was going to request a reduction in their fees if they want us to do viewings and the mistakes they have already made. But now we may consider cancelling instead if we can.
Our contract that we signed doesn't mention anything about a cooling off period but am I right in saying it's 14 days? And is that for contracts signed at home or in the EA office?
They have listed our property and put a board up already but at no point (especially in writing) did we state we wanted them to start this within the 14 days.They just did it. As I said, we were expecting a draft copy of the ad to check etc at which point we may have given them permission to start but that never happened.
If it helps us possibly, then where we have signed the contract then there is nothing written in the Proof of ID box. In case we have to through technicalities at them (if that would even help?).
If we do get a 14 day cooling off period, then the cut off for that is this coming Saturday.
Thanks
TF
0
Comments
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The 14 day cooling off period doesn't apply, you read and signed the contract in the office.
Your biggest problem is a leasehold, no one with any sense is buying leasehold. I suspect the EA just wanted your business and is now realising the problem of no one interested in leaseholds.
However if the contract says they and they alone would conduct viewings then thats a clear breach of contract and you can walk away.
The outfit sounds completely micky mouse anyway which is why you should always review an EA before you sign anything.0 -
So if you sign it in a office, there is no cooling off period at all?The 14 day cooling off period doesn't apply, you read and signed the contract in the office.
Edit: Upon a bit more reading, there is a consensus that they should have given us this information at the time and none was provided?
And that, we were giving them permission to start work straight away?
The contract doesn't mention anything about viewings. It does say about sending us draft copies of the listing, which they didn't do until it was live (and they actually handed it to us after the viewing they conducted).However if the contract says they and they alone would conduct viewings then thats a clear breach of contract and you can walk away.
We did. They have a good local rep and spoke to several estate agents to get a feel for them. Just so happens that things haven't gone well for us so far.The outfit sounds completely micky mouse anyway which is why you should always review an EA before you sign anything.0 -
Anymore ideas on this? From reading around a bit more, there really does seem to be some greyish areas when it comes to estate agent contracts.
I have to make a decision today/tomorrow.0 -
- You signed the contract on their premises, so you have no cooling off period.
- If you are not prepared to conduct viewings, tell the EA that they must conduct viewings.
- Failing to show you a draft of the advert sounds like a breach of contract - but it needs to be a material breach of contract, to give you grounds to rescind (cancel) the contract. (i.e. It needs to have a serious effect on the benefit you will get from the contract.)
If you want, you can try telling the EA that failing to show you a draft (plus the other stuff) is a material breach of contract, so you want to cancel the contract - and see what they say.
If they don't agree, you'd have to instruct another EA - and wait to see if this EA sues you if/when the new EA sells your property.0 -
- You signed the contract on their premises, so you have no cooling off period.
- If you are not prepared to conduct viewings, tell the EA that they must conduct viewings.
- Failing to show you a draft of the advert sounds like a breach of contract - but it needs to be a material breach of contract, to give you grounds to rescind (cancel) the contract. (i.e. It needs to have a serious effect on the benefit you will get from the contract.)
If you want, you can try telling the EA that failing to show you a draft (plus the other stuff) is a material breach of contract, so you want to cancel the contract - and see what they say.
If they don't agree, you'd have to instruct another EA - and wait to see if this EA sues you if/when the new EA sells your property.
Thank you for knowledge on this.0 -
I would speak to the boss and say that it's fairly obvious that they don't think they'll be able to sell it so why don't they cut their losses and let you cancel the contract. It's stupid to be a thorn in each other's side."If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." -- Red Adair0
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This was going to be my first port of call. It's a shame, they are genuine nice people and that's one of the reason we went with them as well as being locally based. But as you say, maybe they will go for a "mutual agreement".I would speak to the boss and say that it's fairly obvious that they don't think they'll be able to sell it so why don't they cut their losses and let you cancel the contract. It's stupid to be a thorn in each other's side.0 -
Sorry to jump into this thread but have just read "Your biggest problem is a leasehold, no one with any sense is buying leasehold.. "Your biggest problem is a leasehold, no one with any sense is buying leasehold. .
As I am potentially about to buy a 999 year leasehold property as a buy to let, would like to know the reason why "no one interested in leasehold"?
Thanks in advance0 -
Your biggest problem is a leasehold, no one with any sense is buying leasehold.
So anyone who buys a flat in England has no sense? what a silly comment to make!.They have listed our property and put a board up already but at no point (especially in writing) did we state we wanted them to start this within the 14 days.They just did it.
That's an interesting thing to say. So if they didn't do anything for 14 days you would have been perfectly happy with that?. Surely you would have wanted them to start straight away like most people would.0 -
Your biggest problem is a leasehold, no one with any sense is buying leasehold. I suspect the EA just wanted your business and is now realising the problem of no one interested in leaseholds.
Hold your horses!! No-one with any sense is buying leaseholds with <99 yr leases where there's a clause saying the ground rent doubles every 5 or 10 years. That's a bit different. My leasehold has about 860 years left on the lease with a ground rent of £1.20 a year, and no clause about any such increases. I couldn't have cared less that my house was leasehold, it won't make a tap of difference to me. All 4 houses in my row have changed owners in the past 5 years or so, so evidently people ARE still buying leasehold houses.
Mind you, I've naively assumed all previous owners wanted to move.......in reality it might have been because of the burden of paying their ground rent! :rotfl:0
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