Estate agent charging a buyers fee

[Deleted User]

Where an estate agent wants the buyer to pay their fees rather than the seller, should the buyer be provided with the EA's terms of business and have to sign a contract to agree to this?
We are due to complete on a property purchase next week but have not been given any information about how the fees work other than we have to pay them on completion.
We have also received terrible service from said EA throughout the process. If we were to refuse to pay the fee on completion (as we are planning on making a complaint to the company regarding the service we have received), could they refuse to hand over the keys?

kazwookie

Claire_L said:

Where an estate agent wants the buyer to pay their fees rather than the seller, should the buyer be provided with the EA's terms of business and have to sign a contract to agree to this?
We are due to complete on a property purchase next week but have not been given any information about how the fees work other than we have to pay them on completion.
We have also received terrible service from said EA throughout the process. If we were to refuse to pay the fee on completion (as we are planning on making a complaint to the company regarding the service we have received), could they refuse to hand over the keys?

Do you have a contract with the EA? is it signed, have you read it? what does it say?

Normally it is the sellers who pay the EA a fee.

What did you actually agree to?

What has your solicitor said about the matter|?

[Deleted User]

kazwookie said:

Do you have a contract with the EA? is it signed, have you read it? what does it say?

Normally it is the sellers who pay the EA a fee.

What did you actually agree to?

What has your solicitor said about the matter|?

We do not have any contract with the EA, we were never given anything to sign. We were told about the fee when we viewed the property but never given any further details about it in writing. 
Our solicitor thinks its crazy that the EA operates this way and particularly after seeing the levels of service received, she thinks we are quite right to refuse to pay. As the fee has to be paid via the solicitor, she has also said that they have no legal obligation to pay the fee as they have not entered into a contract with the EA either. 

K_S

@claire_l Google - the property ombudsman Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents, scroll to the section "Fees and charges" and look for the para for where the buyer is liable for the EA's fee. 

This gives the EA's obligations in this situation and what a formal complaint will be judged against.

AdrianC

Claire_L said:
We were told about the fee when we viewed the property

...and went ahead and viewed and offered anyway...?

eddddy

It depends entirely on what was agreed between you and the estate agent.

For example, under standard contract law...

• if the estate agent said to you something like "If you make an offer through us and it is accepted, you have to pay a fee of £x on completion"

• And then you made an offer with no further comment 

Then you've probably entered into a binding contract.

(Just like if a waiter in a restaurant says "fish and chips costs £8" and you say "I'll have a fish and chips, please")
There's no requirement in contract law to sign anything.

But there is consumer protection legislation which might help you.

And if the EA is a member of the Property Ombudsman Scheme - they tend to set higher requirements, like written terms of business, written details of fees.

Was the property advertised on a website? Was there a link to the terms and conditions of making an offer?

How did you make your offer, was it through a website? Were you directed to a list of terms and conditions (perhaps on a website) by anyone before you made the offer?

Irishpearce26

I've seen a few of these EAs recently, ask for their T&Cs as it may state that when you have an offer accepted the buyer agrees to pay the fee of X. The agent that i wanted to view a house with who charge the buyer told me when i wanted to book a viewing that when i have an offer accepted and proceed i am formally agreeing to their T&Cs. I didn't view the property.

[Deleted User]

eddddy said:

Was the property advertised on a website? Was there a link to the terms and conditions of making an offer?

How did you make your offer, was it through a website? Were you directed to a list of terms and conditions (perhaps on a website) by anyone before you made the offer?

The property was advertised on rightmove and there was no link to T&Cs. Offer was made via email and again we were given no T&Cs before making an offer. 

AdrianC

Claire_L said:

eddddy said:

Was the property advertised on a website? Was there a link to the terms and conditions of making an offer?

How did you make your offer, was it through a website? Were you directed to a list of terms and conditions (perhaps on a website) by anyone before you made the offer?

The property was advertised on rightmove and there was no link to T&Cs. Offer was made via email and again we were given no T&Cs before making an offer. 

But you viewed, and you were given the information verbally when you viewed...?

[Deleted User]

AdrianC said:

But you viewed, and you were given the information verbally when you viewed...?

All we were told was that there was a buyers fee, no further details. Reading the property ombudsman's code of practice it looks as though we should have been given further details/terms of business at the point of being advised of the fee. This is what I'm trying to find out, should we have been given this information?

AdrianC

Claire_L said:

AdrianC said:

But you viewed, and you were given the information verbally when you viewed...?

All we were told was that there was a buyers fee, no further details. Reading the property ombudsman's code of practice it looks as though we should have been given further details/terms of business at the point of being advised of the fee. This is what I'm trying to find out, should we have been given this information?

So you did know there was a fee before you placed the offer.

Did you, y'know, ask for more details on it...?