Help with assisted move query – Estate agents

pipeline69

Hi, I’m looking for some guidance / advice. We recently paid £500 and reserved a plot for a new build house and agreed with the builders to do an assisted move where they paid the estate agents 1% fee for selling our property. Our house was put on the market for £200k and we were initially willing to go as low as £195k when we decided to sell but as we were not paying the estate agents fee (approx. £2k) we could afford to accept a bid at £193k which we did.
Unfortunately once we accepted the bid and went to instruct the conveyancing solicitor to proceed we became aware that there were plans approved to build an additional 900 houses commencing in 2020, this information was not given to us and we discovered our house which was sold to us as a desirable secluded plot would have three houses in close proximity taking away our privacy and sunlight. Not to mention the issues with regards to traffic congestion, etc. We decided to pull out of this deal and lost our £500 deposit.
We have now found a different property of which we have submitted an offer and are hopeful it will be accepted but need to know where we stand with the estate agents and the buyers who made the offer on our current home.
So we have buyers for our house but now we are expected to pay the estate agents fee of £2k. We have never signed a contract with the estate agents as it was between them and the builders originally.
I appreciate that the estate agents located the buyers so have no issue with paying some kind of fee but if we were aware that we had to pay this fee at the point we sold it we would have not accepted the £193k. We also had a number of complaints with how the estate agents performed which were raised during the process. I would be happy to pay a fee of say 0.5% as they did get the sale but just wanted to know contractually where we stood e.g. would there be anything stopping us from just contacting the couple direct and cutting the estate agents out of the deal (I wouldn’t do this but would use it to negotiate a lower commission).
If the current property we are interested in should for any reason not go through we would just take our house off the market so basically any contract I were to sign would be on this basis.

csgohan4

So you agreed builder would pay 1% EA fees, you withdrew from buying from said builder, EA found a buyer and your house is sold, who is going to pay the EA?

You? your selling and the builder is no longer involved. Bartering should have been done before you agreed to sell via the EA.

Complaints Re EA performance are not relevant as it did not form part of a contract which you didn't sign on for but the builders likely did.

No harm in renegotiating with, EA but they have every right to refuse.

The EA found the buyers and you would be hard pressed to go direct without incurring fees, they can and will take you to the small claims courts if you try and cut them out.

kingstreet

At what point did you tell the EA you were not proceeding with the newbuild purchase to give them the opportunity to discuss the contract situation with you?

ethank

You've accepted an offer on an assisted move scheme to buy a property. In this case the developer often contracts with a specialist company who will manage local estate agencies to market your property.

You've not stated whether your contract is with the assisted move company or an estate agent. Having reviewed a contract with one, it states "if your reservation with <Name of Developer> does not complete, and you continue to sell to purchasers introduced by us or our agent, you will pay a fee of 1.5%.

Despite your issues during the process, you ended up selling through them, and they are legally due the commission, which is not going to be paid by the developer now.

I would not even threaten non payment - they are likely to go legal with you. Estate Agents generally send their bills to your solicitor anyway. I would think you would be advised against this.