Estate agent and EPC

FionaSW

Hi

I am after a bit of advice.. I am putting my house on the market, my house was valued by 2 estate agents (I was going to do a part exchange with Persimmon and they arranged the valuations and would put the property on the market with both agents on my behalf)  Persimmon were dragging their heels so I instigated things myself and spoke to one of the agents  to get a feel for the market . I then asked them to market my property and we arranged a day last week for them to come round and do the paperwork and take the pictures. They organized for someone to come around and do an EPC  and floor plan. The agent called in sick so no paper work was done . In the meantime, the other estate agent contacted me and I suggested she also market my house so it would be a multi agency contract. She came over the same day and I signed a multi agency agreement with her. I contacted the original agent to let them know it would be multi agency and they were not happy and have now refused to market my property . They have now sent me an invoice for £84 for the EPC which I think is a bit steep , my research puts them around £60. I didn't ask for them to send their own EPC guy out and wasn't told of the cost up front.  I was told it was no sale no fee so I am feeling a bit frustrated that they are now demanding I pay £84!  I have offered to pay £60 but as it was their choice to withdraw from marketing my property and I didn't sign any contracts, does anyone know where I stand?  I do not remember agreeing to a sole agent either.. Thanks..

macman

You can indeed get an EPC for about £60, but that would be direct. If you commission the EA to arrange it then they are going to add their cut: £24 is not unreasonable, since you can use it with your new EA.

TheJP

You don't need paperwork signed to enter an agreement. Think you are lucky they are only charging you for £84.

anselld

Will you get the EPC for that?  If so you have "lost" £24 worst case which isnt worth arguing about and certainly doesnt cover the time you have wasted for the EA.

eddddy

FionaSW said:

I then asked them to market my property and we arranged a day last week for them to come round and do the paperwork and take the pictures. They organized for someone to come around and do an EPC  and floor plan. The agent called in sick so no paper work was done . 

Based on what you say here, it sounds like you almost certainly entered into a contract with the estate agent - presumably a sole agency contract.

Assuming this all happened at your home (as opposed to the estate agent's office), you will have a 14 day cooling off period to change your mind.

But if you change your mind during that 14 day period, the law allows the estate agent to claim their costs from you.

So they might send you a bill for the time taken visiting your property to take pictures, the cost of creating the floorplan, the time taken writing-up the property details - as well as the cost of the EPC.


It depends on how much work they'd actually done before you cancelled.




Edit to add...

FionaSW said:

I was told it was no sale no fee so I am feeling a bit frustrated that they are now demanding I pay £84!  

In simple terms, the agreement would have been...

"You will let us market your property for 10 weeks (or whatever) on a sole agency basis. If we find a buyer, you pay us a fee. If we don't find a buyer, you pay us nothing."

But you've potentially breached the contract because you haven't allowed them to market the property for 10 weeks on a sole agency basis.