Estate Agencies sole selling rights

mconwaymsc

Hi all
I got pressurised into signing up with Express Estate Agency and then noticed their 9 month sole selling rights after contract termination, later on, after reading the small print - this wasn't pointed out nor explained to me either by the sales rep.
My question is that it says that "If Unconditional Contracts are exchanged you are liable for paying commissioning fees etc for up to 9 months afterwards", can these buying/selling estate type contracts be signed off and exchanged with a condition still on it, that the buyer is prepared to accept? an example might be if a garage had a leaky roof say and the buyer accepts the defect, would it remain on the contract therefore making it a conditional contract?
Would appreciate a professional (lawyer/solicitors) input here or if maybe someone has tried this approach before to get out of this ridiculous type of locking in process.
Just wondering if anyone has gone ahead and sold their property after terminating the contract with EEA but within the 9 month period and did EEA chase you up for the fees?
Cheers!

SpiderLegs

What is the exact wording please.

if you want a professional opinion you need to pay a professional.

ashe

Whilst not an expert, its usually the case that if they introduce a buyer and you change EA, and that buyer goes on to buy the house, then you are liable to them for fees - this can get sticky if you sign up with another EA. Unfortunately you have signed up to the contract - if you didnt negotiate that part, you probably didnt negotiate the EA fees either? both are highly negotiable and I wouldn't accept anything over 8-12 weeks as thats enough time for them to show their worth or get binned off. 

You would have had a copy of the documents to read before signing, so even if the sales rep did miss this out, you would need to have read the document yourself. We fell into a similar trap and they overvalued our house to win our business. When we realised the error and became savvy about the negotiable nature of fees, they wouldn't adjust it and fell back on "contracts are binding etc" which is obviously rubbish, so we just put the house price up by 10k and said we'll sit on it until the contract expires. We did, they lost out on commission, and we sold it rapidly with another EA. 

SMR710

At the point of exchange of contracts, the contract is unconditional. There may be caveats to it in terms of deals you have done, prices on items you're leaving, deposit contributions etc but its unconditional in its entity as a legal contract for the sale / purchase of the property.
Think of it in recruitment terms:
You can be offered a job with a conditional contract which is subject to satisfactory references. In conveyancing this is like putting an offer in which is still conditional as its subject to mortgage offer, satisfactory searches, enquiries answered (I.e. the reference for the property!)
In recruitment, your references come back ok and you're issued an unconditional contract to sign - you've got the job unconditionally. In conveyancing, your searches etc are back and (when the chain is ready) you exchange unconditional contracts - the sale is now unconditional.
You could maybe start the conveyancing process within the 9 months (the searches, mortgage, survey etc) without penalty but it sounds like if the contracts are then exchanged within that 9 months then you're liable for payment to EEA.
Most conveyancing takes a good 8 weeks at the very least but can drag out 12, 16 weeks if not more so depending when your 9 months is up, you might pass it by the time you agree a sale and get through the legal process?
Good luck with your sale.  
(My post is supportive - sometimes reading things can come across wrong but it isn't)

davidmcn

SMR710 said:

At the point of exchange of contracts, the contract is unconditional.

Not necessarily. Though it is the norm.

But if completion has taken place, the contract has clearly become unconditional at some point - you can't claim it's somehow still conditional if the substantive part of the contract is done and dusted.

eddddy

mconwaymsc said:

Just wondering if anyone has gone ahead and sold their property after terminating the contract with EEA but within the 9 month period and did EEA chase you up for the fees?
Cheers!

Presumably the contract says that only applies to a buyer introduced during the Sole Selling Rights contract period - and not to a buyer introduced before or after the Sole Selling Rights contract period.

If so, that's a fairly standard term in Sole Selling Rights contracts.

Put another way, if the eventual buyer is introduced during the EA's Sole Selling Rights period, the EA gets their fee.