Should I pay the estate agent their fee

Tom7879

Hi,

I took on an estate agent about 7 months ago to sell a house which is under my wife's name - in addition to marketing the property myself on House Simple. Although the house has now sold, i feel the service they provided was terrible and I should not have to pay them their fee.

At the time the house was freshly refurbished to a very high standard, and I had lots of interest of first time buyers through House Simple. However the estate agent convinced us to take a cash offer they had found - which was lower than what we wanted to accept - as they said the buyer would complete in 4-6 weeks.

We were part of a chain and so accepted the offer as it would help us make our onward purchase.

At first the buyer, seemed to be really dragging their heels with their enquiries - and I kept bringing this up with the estate agent - they kept telling me it was all normal and progressing well. Then when they managed to get enquiries fulfilled, and on the day all parties in the chain were expecting to exchange (3 months after the offer being accepted!) - the buyer said their money was stuck in a bank abroad and they couldnt proceed to exchange - for an indefinite period of time! Despite the estate agent having supposedly vetted the buyer and seen proof of funds back when the offer was accepted! The buyer told me directly that the money was tied to a property abroad and has only just become available but the bank wont release it. So based on this I dont know how our estate agent managed to see proof of funds. It was quite obvious they had not vetted the buyer at all. When I asked the estate agent what they had seen and what proof they had - they basically had nothing to say.

During the course of the following 3 months, my wife and I went through a tonne of problems - with needing to move out of our current home, the remaining chain losing patience with us, and our buyer just repeatedly stringing us along saying, it should happen in a few days - this carried on for the whole 3 months.

I had the buyers number so was calling him regularly but being brushed off and the estate agent just told me to remarket the proeprty and had no interest in chasing the buyer any longer. I basically did all teh chasing and badgering for the 3 months period. During this time, the seller of the house we wanted to buy pulled contracts from us and made a deal with someone else.

Eventually, pretty much out of the blue we received notice from our solicitor that the buyer has re-emerged and transferred the funds. This was about 6 months after they agreed the deal. Not surprisingly the estate agent who had lost all interest in the transaction called me out of the blue and sent us an invoice. We did manage to 'grovel' to the person we wanted to buy the house from and managed to get her to sell her house to us again.

I feel the way the estate behaved has been appalling and these problems started with them just not vetting the buyer properly. It cost my wife and i over £6000 in extra mortgage payments, and now will mean having to hire removal company twice (over another £1000).

Although i did negotiate a good fee with the estate agent - i feel their service has been terrible. I do not feel they justifiably deserve their fee. I will pay them something for finding the buyer, but they should reduce their fee for the cost and stress they caused us.

They are however refusing to budge at all and threatening to pass it to their solicitors if they dont get paid.

I am just wondering now whether I have any options now regarding their fee?? The contract which was signed by the estate agent was signed by myself and not my wife, even though the house is in her name. They didnt get any authority from her. Does this make a difference?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

G_M

You employed an EA to find you a buyer.
The EA found you a buyer and you sold the property to that buyer.
You pay the EA.


Any difficulties with the buyer are out of the EA's control. OK, he may not have been the best agent on the block, but he did what you wanted - introduced a buyer.


Pay the invoice and save yourself the costs of losing a court action.

Tom7879

Thanks.

Do EA's have any responsibility to vet clients? Every time I have tried to buy a house in the past, the EA have asked for proof of mortgage offer, and when I have made a cash offer - wanted to see proof of funds. You would think this is a reasonable service expectation?

Them not doing this cost me over £6000. This doesnt seem right.

BTW the estate agent also told me to put the house back on the market and said they were not going to chase the buyer anymore. I didnt hear from them in months. Again doesnt seem right.

Legally speaking - the home owner didnt sign the agreement. Why do you feel with certainty that the court action would be lost?

Even House Simple refused to list the house without written authority of the home owner. The estate agent not requesting this from us, is the same relaxed attitude they showed when vetting the client.

foxy-stoat

Tom7879 wrote: »

It cost my wife and i over £6000 in extra mortgage payments, and now will mean having to hire removal company twice (over another £1000).

I am just wondering now whether I have any options now regarding their fee?? The contract which was signed by the estate agent was signed by myself and not my wife, even though the house is in her name. They didnt get any authority from her. Does this make a difference?
,

You paid another £6K in mortgage payments, assuming it wasnt interest only then you would of paid some of the capital back, so its still your money that you paid.

The only difference it will make is the Estate Agent will sue you and not your Wife for their fee - the fact that the house is in your Wife's name will make no difference as she had agreed to the sale.

BrassicWoman

Did the £6k in mortgage payments not reduce the capital you repaid?

And booking removals before you had exchanged is totally down to you...no?

Tom7879

Thanks.

So basically the consensus seems that EA's can find a buyer, lie to you about the buyers position and basically do whatever they want throughout the transaction - no matter what financial implication it has on you - implication based on their lies.

So they really do not need to have any kind of service standard?

G_M

Tom7879 wrote: »

Thanks.

Do EA's have any responsibility to vet clients? Every time I have tried to buy a house in the past, the EA have asked for proof of mortgage offer, and when I have made a cash offer - wanted to see proof of funds. You would think this is a reasonable service expectation?
Yes up to a point, but if the buyer does not reveal (or know?) of the difficulties he might have getting the funds released from abroad, and/or another property transaction, it is unreasonable to expect the EA to have 2nd sight.


Them not doing this cost me over £6000. This doesnt seem right.
The EA is not responsible for your financial situation or existing loans(assuming this was a loan repayment)
Doubtless some of that £6K was capital repayments anyway?
If anyone is to blame for the delays (and your costs) it is the buyer.


BTW the estate agent also told me to put the house back on the market and said they were not going to chase the buyer anymore. I didnt hear from them in months. Again doesnt seem right.
So the EA gave you good professional advice. They realised the sale was being held up and potentially falling through, so advised you to re-market. Did you follow this good advice?


Legally speaking - the home owner didnt sign the agreement. Why do you feel with certainty that the court action would be lost?

Ha ha! So would you have refused to pay the EA fees on those grounds if the sale had gone through smoothly and quickly?


By all means use that as a defense in court. The EA will simply point out that the home-owner sold to the buyer introduced by the EA.
My guess is you have a 5% chance of success on those grounds - but who can say what a judge would decide....?


Even House Simple refused to list the house without written authority of the home owner. The estate agent not requesting this from us, is the same relaxed attitude they showed when vetting the client.

Since you seem confidant of your position, ignore me (and any other posters here who respond) and refuse to pay the EA's fee.


ps - confused as to why you had to pay a removals company twice. Had you booked them the first time before Exchanging Contracts? If so, that was a calculated risk that you took but which did not pay off. Your choice.

mrginge

Tom7879 wrote: »

Thanks.

So basically the consensus seems that EA's can find a buyer, lie to you about the buyers position and basically do whatever they want throughout the transaction - no matter what financial implication it has on you - implication based on their lies.

So they really do not need to have any kind of service standard?

The consensus is that you contractually agreed for them to perform some service and if they have fulfilled it then you have to also fulfill your side of the contract.
So I guess we need to know what level of service standard you requested from them.

Tom7879

'So I guess we need to know what level of service standard you requested from them.'

I guess I assumed honesty and integrity would be a given - not sure if its in their contract though.

They told me they had a cash buyer and had seen ready proof of funds. This was a lie.

Comms69

Tom7879 wrote: »

'So I guess we need to know what level of service standard you requested from them.'

I guess I assumed honesty and integrity would be a given - not sure if its in their contract though.

They told me they had a cash buyer and had seen ready proof of funds. This was a lie.

Like has been said; don’t pay but you’ll lose at court and end up with a CCJ and paying more anyway.

quantumlobster

Tom7879 wrote: »

'So I guess we need to know what level of service standard you requested from them.'

I guess I assumed honesty and integrity would be a given - not sure if its in their contract though.

They told me they had a cash buyer and had seen ready proof of funds. This was a lie.

Have you documented evidence of this?