Estate Agent Dispute

matesalka

I had a question about estate agents

it is a bit of a complicated situation but I was in contact with an estate agent for a valuation and they suggested some buyers who were interested as it is in very high demand. They put forward about 3 buyers, however I never signed a contract with them and never actually asked them to take it to
market. I never signed a contract and they never sent me their terms of business. In fact I'm one conversation I had with them I asked them IF I were to go ahead with what would their commission be any they said they only charge commission to the buyer. To cut a long shorty short they proposed about 4 offers but I decided to reject them. They are now saying they are going to invoice me for their valuation and consultancy. Can they do that? I understand that they are annoyed that they spent time on this but I got a better offer and decided to reject their offers. I can't be forced to accept a much lower offer! Don't think I should be charged when there was no contract and they never sent me any terms of business. 

canaldumidi

Did any of these 'buyers' actually view the property? If so, either you let them in or you gave the EA a key. Either of those actions would have constituted agreement to a contract with the EA since you were permiting the EA to market the property for you.

If you neither signed a contract, nor verbally agreed to one, nor supplied a key to allow the EA toarrange viewings, nor admitted a buyer refered by the EA, then no contract exists.

If a contract does exist, then the next quesion is what were the terms. If you had been provided their standard terms, then your actions creating a contract would be assumed to be based on that.

If no written terms were ever provided, then the terms would be based on what was said (always open to debate....).

Immensely surprised you believe they said" they only charge commission to the buyer." That is so uncommon as to suggst you misunderstood/mis-heard (hence my comment above about debatable verbal agreements!).

But equally I find it hard to believe that the agent received 4 offers without any viewings having taken place, so I ask again - did viewings take place and how?

Where did you other, higher offer come from? Another agent?

eddddy

matesalka said:

To cut a long shorty short they proposed about 4 offers but I decided to reject them. They are now saying they are going to invoice me for their valuation and consultancy. 

Unless they told you in advance that there was a fee for valuation and consultancy, they don't have a basis for charging you.

Also, estate agents who charge fees to buyers and not to sellers are often 'dodgy'. They try to convince naïve sellers that it's a good idea to go with them, because they won't have to pay any fees.


If the EA is a member of the Property Ombudsman Scheme, tell the EA you're going to complain to the Ombudsman unless they withdraw their charges. See: https://www.tpos.co.uk/consumers/how-to-make-a-complaint

Or just ignore them - unless they make a court claim against you.