Interested party after house taken off the market and Estate agent "let go".

SilasMarner

Good Afternoon,
 I wonder if any person in the know has any advice on this conundrum please:-
House on the market for 4 months. 9 viewings but nothing to take it forward. Estate agent "stood down" and house taken off the market. List of potential viewers etc received from the E.A. in case of future claim.
2 months later an articulate letter delivered by hand from an individual saying that they were very interested in buying - including phone numbers. This person is not on E.A's list, although they say they contacted E.A. just as it was pulled off the market. What are the pitfalls and disaster areas specifically dealing direct without an E.A? If any. 
TBH I am nervous about the process and machinery of pushing things forward to a satisfactory conclusion without a third party pulling it all together, doing due diligence on the buyer etc.
Thanks for any advice.

jrawle

There's no problem selling a property without an estate agent. You still use a solicitor, who will move things forward. I always felt an EA was superfluous once there was a buyer, and just got in the way and was frustrating to deal with.

Do check the contract you signed with the estate agent, though. There may be an exclusive period for which they will still claim a fee if you sell, even if it's not a buyer they introduced you to.

RHemmings

jrawle said:

There's no problem selling a property without an estate agent. You still use a solicitor, who will move things forward. I always felt an EA was superfluous once there was a buyer, and just got in the way and was frustrating to deal with.

Do check the contract you signed with the estate agent, though. There may be an exclusive period for which they will still claim a fee if you sell, even if it's not a buyer they introduced you to.

Surely it would have to be an 'effective introduction' for the EA to claim a fee. E.g. as described here: https://www.tradingstandards.uk/media/documents/commercial/codes-of-practice/residential-estate-agents.pdf

And, the EA has already given a list of buyers introduced. How could they then claim a part of the current sale? Given that the potential buyer is not listed in that. 

What wording in the contract would get around that? (Genuine question)

Brie

RHemmings said:

How could they then claim a part of the current sale? Given that the potential buyer is not listed in that. 

What wording in the contract would get around that? (Genuine question)

It would be the bit that says something like "if you sell the property to anyone within X months of signing this then we still get our percentage, no matter how the buyer was found."

Hoenir

The EA didn't regard the contact as an introduction. Fielding a telephone enquiry wouldn't amount to anything. 

RHemmings

Brie said:

RHemmings said:

How could they then claim a part of the current sale? Given that the potential buyer is not listed in that. 

What wording in the contract would get around that? (Genuine question)

It would be the bit that says something like "if you sell the property to anyone within X months of signing this then we still get our percentage, no matter how the buyer was found."

The description from the OP makes it look as if the professional relationship has ended fairly conclusively. If they are tied in longer then I would have expected the OP to mention that. (No proof of course that such a clause doesn't exist in this situation.)  

eddddy

SilasMarner said:

2 months later an articulate letter delivered by hand from an individual saying that they were very interested in buying - including phone numbers. This person is not on E.A's list, although they say they contacted E.A. just as it was pulled off the market. 

Maybe be wary of being messed about. This sounds like it could be slightly contrived - for example, the kind of 'stunt' that a 'we buy any house' type of company might try.

Have you tried googling the phone numbers (or names or any other info in the letter) to see if you can find any matches.

SilasMarner said:

What are the pitfalls and disaster areas specifically dealing direct without an E.A? If any. 

Given the unusual style of approaching you, maybe you want to be a bit careful with your due diligence.

• Do they have a property to sell? If so, is it under offer? If so, how far has the sale progressed? Is there achian below them, and is it complete? Do you want to check the story with EA selling the property?

• Do they have a mortgage AIP? Can they provide evidence that they will have enough funds to cover the deposit?

Then there's the issue of progressing the sale, monitoring any chain below, smoothing out problems, potentially renegotiating the price following a survey, etc.

SilasMarner

Re Eddy's comment:-

Thanks - these were the issues that crossed my mind. One of those issues where you'd hate to miss the sale but......for me the due diligence et al is critical, given what is at stake financially and I'd rather not be personally involved in "all that".  Half tempted to re-employ an E.A. and hand the phone numbers to them. Expensive ..but 1% of 400k might be worth it.

Re RHemming's comment:-

Yes - it was a conclusive denouement! The tie in period ended and then some before we ended the relationship. I think the contract period is well and truly in the rear view mirror.

amandaleeds

Brie said:

RHemmings said:

How could they then claim a part of the current sale? Given that the potential buyer is not listed in that. 

What wording in the contract would get around that? (Genuine question)

It would be the bit that says something like "if you sell the property to anyone within X months of signing this then we still get our percentage, no matter how the buyer was found."

Yes, my understanding when I asked about Ts and Cs was that even if someone approached me directly after seeing an ad on rightmove, the estate agent would still get the fee if it was still within the contract period, even if I'd 'dismissed' them 

eddddy

amandaleeds said:

Brie said:

RHemmings said:

How could they then claim a part of the current sale? Given that the potential buyer is not listed in that. 

What wording in the contract would get around that? (Genuine question)

It would be the bit that says something like "if you sell the property to anyone within X months of signing this then we still get our percentage, no matter how the buyer was found."

Yes, my understanding when I asked about Ts and Cs was that even if someone approached me directly after seeing an ad on rightmove, the estate agent would still get the fee if it was still within the contract period, even if I'd 'dismissed' them 

Your comment might mislead people a bit...

• A court of appeal case and the Property Ombudsman confirm that seeing an estate agent's listing on Rightmove isn't an effective introduction by that estate agent.

But...

• If you have a 'sole selling rights' contract, and a buyer is introduced during the contract period by any means (including seeing a listing on Rightmove), typically you have to pay the estate agent's fee.

• If you have a 'sole agency' contract, typically you only have to pay the estate agent's fee if a buyer is introduced during the contract period by an agent.  (So seeing a listing on Rightmove wouldn't count)

I'm not sure what you mean by 'dismissed' within the contract period.

Bigphil1474

Not sure I'd want to pay an EA 1% (or more) on a 400k property in these circumstances. A conveyancing solicitor will charge less and probably do a better job. The main things the EA does is to market the property, and once an offer is made check for proof of funds to take the property off the market, and then managing some of the chain - even then it's only a part management role. Not much of that is required in your case. 

Based on what was on my EA contract, you'd be good to go without the EA needing to be paid. As others have said, if they introduced the buyer and you and they waited a couple of months to try and avoid EA fees, that wouldn't change the fact they introduced the buyer - from what you've said they didn't, so I'd be surprised if you were contracted into paying the EA.