Terminating agreement with estate agents

Liz65

hi, can anyone tell me if I can cancel a contract with an estate agent (sole agent) after a year without 14 days notice.
They have sold our house STC but now we are ready to go the estate agent and the buyers are messing around and there is a lack of communication between us and the estate agent, we are constantly calling and being told they will call back and are out of the office and the never call back or answer emails.
 Thanks

RedFraggle

What does the contract say. You'll likely have to pay them anyway.

Liz65

Hi, contract says initial 20 weeks and I think 14 days notice but we feel we have been treated unfairly and have been taken for a ride by this agent

RAS

Read your contract.

The likelihood is that they can charge you full fees if they have introduced you to a buyer. It might be "proceedable buyer", it might well include anyone they introduced even if you later change EA.

So read the contract.

Liz65

The buyer is making demands to not exchange before a certain time and the complete 4-6 weeks after that!  Is this normal.  We think they are trying to let their place out before they commit to buying ours which I think is unacceptable 

eddddy

Liz65 said:

can anyone tell me if I can cancel a contract with an estate agent (sole agent) after a year without 14 days notice.

What are you trying to achieve by terminating the contract?

Do you want to avoid paying their fee? If so, terminating the contract won't help.

Almost all estate agents' contracts say you have to pay their fee if you sell to a buyer they introduced within two years.

So terminating the contract probably won't make any difference - you'll still have to pay the estate agent's fee.


The only way you can avoid paying their fee is if you delay the sale for 2 years...

....or you sell to somebody else who wasn't introduced by the estate agent and wasn't introduced during their contract period. 

(But read their contract to double check that.)

london21

Read the contract.

But seems you are not happy with the buyer, they can find you another buyer but likely request their fee if you don't want to use EA anymore.

Ath_Wat

Liz65 said:

The buyer is making demands to not exchange before a certain time and the complete 4-6 weeks after that!  Is this normal.  We think they are trying to let their place out before they commit to buying ours which I think is unacceptable 

It is unacceptable if you don't want to accept it.  Just refuse. 

The estate agent however is not responsible for the buyer's demands, so it isn't clear why this would make you want to change estate agent.   How long has this buyer been on the scene and what has happened in the year your house has been for sale?

SusieT

The contract that I have is that if the buyer is proceedable and I pull out the full fee is payable, your buyer is clearly proceedable just not with a timeline that you find acceptable. Therefore IF your contract has the same condition you will have a hefty invoice. If they do not have that wording you could still have a smaller invoice for the work they have done so far, which may be a significant sum.
I suggest that you email and send a letter to the estate agent with the heading saying formal complaint, and set out their lack of communication, and that you require them to communicate with both you and the buyer, and act to proceed the sale in a shorter timeframe.
At this point, by the time you remarket, find a buyer, they go through the searches and contract etc it could still take longer than waiting for these people, even though they are not exactly the fastest.

pinkshoes

Liz65 said:

The buyer is making demands to not exchange before a certain time and the complete 4-6 weeks after that!  Is this normal.  We think they are trying to let their place out before they commit to buying ours which I think is unacceptable 

4 weeks between exchange and completion isn't that uncommon.

I'm not sure how ditching your agent will help you, as you're not going to sell it any faster with another agent if they already have a proceedable buyer, albeit a demanding one.

Just be FIRM with the EA, and tell them that you want to exchange by X date, you will agree to 4 weeks between exchange and completion, and if the buyers cannot agree to such basic terms then they are clearly not proceedable. 

Ath_Wat

SusieT said:

The contract that I have is that if the buyer is proceedable and I pull out the full fee is payable, your buyer is clearly proceedable just not with a timeline that you find acceptable. Therefore IF your contract has the same condition you will have a hefty invoice. If they do not have that wording you could still have a smaller invoice for the work they have done so far, which may be a significant sum.
I suggest that you email and send a letter to the estate agent with the heading saying formal complaint, and set out their lack of communication, and that you require them to communicate with both you and the buyer, and act to proceed the sale in a shorter timeframe.
At this point, by the time you remarket, find a buyer, they go through the searches and contract etc it could still take longer than waiting for these people, even though they are not exactly the fastest.

You don't pull out though, do you.  You tell the buyer you will continue to market if they won't exchange for a long period, rather than sit there waiting for them, and they pull out.  Or they don't, and you can sell to them after all if you haven't managed to sell in the meantime.