High Street Estate Agent after Yopa, but now previous viewer offered

happyindebt

Our house was on with Yopa and we were doing the viewings, so we had contact details of  the people who came and viewed our property.

Then we decided to change from Yopa to a "normal" estate agent, Whites, with a sole agency contract.

Now a previous person who viewed the house when it was still on Yopa contacted us directly and made an offer. 

I would like to know whether I have to pay the current estate agent any commission, if I end up selling privately to a person who was introduced by Yopa (Yopa doesn't charge commission). It's not clear in their T&Cs. T&Cs below. Thanks everyone.

The fees will become chargeable on exchange of contracts and will be payable upon completion where a purchaser has been introduced by this firm. The introduction can be by any method of marketing, advertising and contact, during the term of sole agency. 

The fee is payable to Whites Estate Agents if a purchaser is introduced to the property by any other agent during our sole agency term.

Should another agent be instructed to sell the property during our term of sole agency then our fee will automatically increase to 3.25% (plus VAT). If another agent has previously been instructed to sell the property this agreement is taken as confirmation that such instructions have been cancelled. Failure to do so could expose the seller to paying two fees.

Should our instructions be terminated and the property subsequently be sold by the seller, within six months of the termination of our sole agency agreement, to a purchaser who was introduced to the property by Whites Estate Agents during the period of our engagement, then our fee is payable in full.

BarelySentientAI

The purchaser was introduced prior to the sole agency term.  New EA not due anything.

eddddy

Based on what you say...

• Whites hasn't introduced the buyer...

• The buyer wasn't introduced (by another agent) during Whites sole agency term. (The buyer was introduced before White's sole agency term started.)

So you won't owe fees to Whites. (Unless there are other types of fees mentioned elsewhere in the contract - like "Withdrawal Fees" or "Marketing Fees" etc.)

That's completely normal for Sole Agency Contracts.


The only issue might be if Whites suspect that the buyer was actually introduced after their sole agency started. Do you have any evidence (emails etc) to show when the buyer first viewed the property?

And/or did you give Whites a list of people who had already been introduced before signing Whites' contract?

happyindebt

eddddy said:

Based on what you say...

• Whites hasn't introduced the buyer...

• The buyer wasn't introduced (by another agent) during Whites sole agency term. (The buyer was introduced before White's sole agency term started.)

So you won't owe fees to Whites. (Unless there are other types of fees mentioned elsewhere in the contract - like "Withdrawal Fees" or "Marketing Fees" etc.)

That's completely normal for Sole Agency Contracts.


The only issue might be if Whites suspect that the buyer was actually introduced after their sole agency started. Do you have any evidence (emails etc) to show when the buyer first viewed the property?

And/or did you give Whites a list of people who had already been introduced before signing Whites' contract?

I have a lot of evidence of when the viewing happened, but I didn't send the new estate agent a list of people who had viewed the property with Yopa.

eddddy

happyindebt said:

eddddy said:

Based on what you say...

• Whites hasn't introduced the buyer...

• The buyer wasn't introduced (by another agent) during Whites sole agency term. (The buyer was introduced before White's sole agency term started.)

So you won't owe fees to Whites. (Unless there are other types of fees mentioned elsewhere in the contract - like "Withdrawal Fees" or "Marketing Fees" etc.)

That's completely normal for Sole Agency Contracts.


The only issue might be if Whites suspect that the buyer was actually introduced after their sole agency started. Do you have any evidence (emails etc) to show when the buyer first viewed the property?

And/or did you give Whites a list of people who had already been introduced before signing Whites' contract?

I have a lot of evidence of when the viewing happened, but I didn't send the new estate agent a list of people who had viewed the property with Yopa.

So you should be OK. (Assuming there aren't any nasty clauses elsewhere in White's contract.)

Whites might be a bit annoyed at losing the business - but this situation is just part of being an estate agent. It's probably happened to them many times before.