Do I have a contract or not??

dutchcloggie

Hi all,

I am in a little bit of confusion and would be interested to have people's take on this. Bit complicated so bear with me.

In February, my partner and I put our house in the market because we were moving together. We signed the contract with the agent and we got an offer in a day, which we accepted.We paid £60 to have an EPC done. Then my partner said she did not love me anymore and we agreed to go to therapy. I found this very stressful, knowing the selling process was under way, effectively limiting how much time we would have to save our marriage until completion. My partner agreed to take the house off the market again whilst we were trying to work through things. This was within the 2 week cancellation term of the contract. I cancelled the sale and the contract and received an email to say they had received the cancellation and wanted to discuss it. I never replied to that email because them having received the email was enough confirmation of them knowing I wanted to cancel. We did not get a refund for the £60 for the EPC.

2 weeks after that, i found out my partner was actually having an affair and had planned to leave me anyway (again, don't ask!). In emotional turmoil, we agreed to put the house BACK on the market. She called the agent to put it back on the market. They never sent us a new contract. They just said: We have everything we need. However, nobody ever came out to do the EPC we had paid for previously. Doesn't this make it illegal for the house to be sold?? They never even placed a For Sale sign on the house, despite me asking for it multiple times and been promised they would sort it out.

Since then, we have had many viewings but no offers. They advised us to drop the price by a whopping £15,000 from the initial valuation they gave us the first time around.
Now that the price has dropped so much, it has become affordable for me to buy my partner out, rather than selling it. She has agreed with this.

My question is this: If I tell the estate agent that we wish to take the property off the market again, will they be able to say we owe them money for services rendered? In my opinion, we should have had a new contract when we put it back on the market so in actual fact, it is their problem, not ours and we should not have to pay them money.

This is not about what my partner did. I only mention that so that people understand why we put it on the market, took it off 2 weeks later and then put it back on 2 weeks after that and now want to take it off the market again. It has been a very emotionally confusing time and in hindsight, we should have just done nothing for a few months whilst figuring out what we were going to do.

Any ideas where we stand on having to pay them money?

AnotherJoe

I would go on the basis that you clearly do have a contract, albeit perhaps verbal but implicitly based on the original contract you signed.

Now the question you are asking is, do you need to pay them if you buy, based on that contract?

So, look at the contract wording.

If its sole selling rights then I'd say you do owe them.

If its sole agency, then I'd say you dont.

eddddy

You clearly have a contract with the EA.

If nothing else, here is the point you clearly entered into a contract:

dutchcloggie wrote: »

She called the agent to put it back on the market.

Unless you're going to claim that your wife called the EA without your knowledge or consent (which might be coming close to accusing her of fraud).

And presumably, the EA had given you a copy of their contract terms in February, so you cannot claim that you didn't know any of the contract terms.

So you need to read the contract to see what you agreed to - and take steps to terminate the contract. (But there may be a minimum contract period.)

Some EAs don't charge anything if you withdraw from sale, others have withdrawal fees.

SpiderLegs

AnotherJoe wrote: »

I would go on the basis that you clearly do have a contract, albeit perhaps verbal but implicitly based on the original contract you signed.

Now the question you are asking is, do you need to pay them if you buy, based on that contract?

So, look at the contract wording.

If its sole selling rights then I'd say you do owe them.

If its sole agency, then I'd say you dont.

Surely this would be a transfer of equity rather than a sale.

AnotherJoe

SpiderLegs wrote: »

Surely this would be a transfer of equity rather than a sale.

Fair point I stand corrected. So yes no sale so it depends what the contract says.